Twelve-Month Outcomes Following Successful Panic-Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, or Applied Relaxation Training for Panic Disorder

Objective: Given the chronic, episodic nature of panic disorder, it is important to examine long-term outcomes of patients who respond well to various psychotherapies.

Method: Out of 116 patients with DSM-IV panic disorder who evidenced a ≥ 40% reduction in panic and avoidance symptoms on the Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS) after 12-14 weeks of panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, or applied relaxation training as part of a 2-site randomized controlled trial conducted between January 2007 and July 2012, 91 patients provided at least 1 PDSS datapoint during follow-up. Patients were assessed at each of the 12 following months using the PDSS, the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and twice during the follow-up period with the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule.

Results: Patients with panic disorder who responded to 1 of 3 treatments maintained their gains on the PDSS, SDS, and HDRS with no differences by condition in rates of change over the follow-up period (all P values ≥ .20). Similarly, 57% of improved patients did not have a panic disorder diagnosis by the end of 1 year, regardless of the treatment received. No differences in rates of panic disorder diagnosis were found across treatment conditions at either 6 months or 12 months (all P values ≥ .78). Results should be interpreted in light of the fact that patients giving data at follow-up experienced lower symptom levels at treatment termination than those not providing data.

Conclusions: Improvement in any of the 3 treatments examined in this trial was largely maintained for a year following the end of therapy. Future treatment development could focus on factors to increase the level of response in the active phase of therapy.

Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00353470