Life events and panic disorder/agoraphobia: a comparison at two time periods

Semistructured interviews of 187 patients with a DSM-III diagnosis of panic disorder or agoraphobia with panic attacks were conducted an average of 12 years after onset of the disorder. Interviews solicited life events that occurred in the year before onset and in the year preceding index evaluation. The number and type of life events were found to be similar at onset and at the later evaluation. However, the results showed that a tendency for increased reporting of life events before onset in a subgroup of patients was counterbalanced by a tendency for decreased reporting in another subgroup. Attention to individual differences rather than group means may be more important in future prospective studies.