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Published on: August 11, 2015
Moderators of short- and long-term outcomes in panic control treatment and panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy
Rolf Sandell1, Fredrik Falkenström2, Martin Svensson1
1Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Objective:
The objective was to test the hypothesis that externalizing and internalizing helpfulness beliefs and learning styles at baseline moderate panic severity and overall mental illness as short-term and long-term outcomes of two panic-focused psychotherapies, Panic Control Treatment (PCT) and Panic-Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (PFPP).
Method:
Participants were 108 adults with DSM-IV Panic Disorder with or without Agoraphobia (PD/A) who were randomized to treatment in a trial of PCT and PFPP. Piece-wise/segmented multilevel modeling was used to test three-way interactions (Treatments × Moderator × Time), with participants and therapists as random factors. Outcome variables were clinician-rated panic severity and self-rated mental illness post-treatment and during follow-up.
Results:
Patients' externalizing (but not internalizing) helpfulness beliefs moderated mental illness outcomes during follow-up (but not during treatment); low levels of Externalization were facilitative for PFPP but not PCT. Internalizing and externalizing helpfulness beliefs and learning style did not moderate clinician-rated panic severity, whether short- or long-term.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that helpfulness beliefs and learning style have limited use in assignment to either PCT or PFPP for PD/A. Although further research is needed, low levels of helpfulness beliefs about externalizing coping may play a role in mental illness outcomes for PFPP.
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