Agoraphobics' understanding of the development and maintenance of their symptoms

A 24-item test was devised to study the degree of understanding a group of agoraphobics had of the etiology and behavioral treatment of their symptoms before and after treatment, whether understanding was related to mode of symptom acquisition and, finally, if increase in understanding was related to treatment outcome. Clients were found to be ill-informed in areas most directly related to realistic exposure strategies, but there was no difference between those who had conditioning as opposed to cognitive acquisition histories. Changes in understanding were found to be related to outcome measures.