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Do Symptom Interpretations Mediate the Relationship Between Panic Attack Symptoms and Agoraphobic Avoidance?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2010

David Berle ,
Vladan Starcevic ,
Denise Milicevic ,
Anthony Hannan  and
Karen Moses
David Berle*
Affiliation:
Sydney West Area Health Service, Australia
Vladan Starcevic
Affiliation:
University of Sydney, Australia
Denise Milicevic
Affiliation:
Sydney West Area Health Service, Australia
Anthony Hannan
Affiliation:
Sydney West Area Health Service, Australia
Karen Moses
Affiliation:
Sydney West Area Health Service, Australia
*
Reprint requests to David Berle, Nepean Anxiety Disorders Clinic, Sydney West Area Health Service, PO Box 63, Penrith NSW 2751, Australia. E-mail: berled@wahs.nsw.gov.au
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Abstract

Background: There is little consensus as to whether agoraphobic avoidance in panic disorder is characterized by a prominence of particular symptoms and interpretations of those symptoms. Aims: We sought to clarify the relationship between symptoms and agoraphobic avoidance and to establish whether catastrophic interpretations of symptoms mediate any such relationships. Method: The Symptom Checklist 90-Revised, Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire and Mobility Inventory were administered to 117 patients with panic disorder who were attending an outpatient anxiety disorders clinic. Results: Medium to large associations were found between most symptoms and agoraphobic avoidance and between particular symptoms and the corresponding symptom interpretation items. Some interpretations of symptoms were found to mediate relationships between symptoms and agoraphobic avoidance. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the catastrophic misinterpretation model of panic disorder can to some extent be invoked to explain the extent of agoraphobic avoidance, but that there may also be other pathways leading from symptoms to agoraphobia.

Keywords

Panic disorderagoraphobiacognitionsmisinterpretationpanic symptoms
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , May 2010 , pp. 275 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2010

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