Cognitive-behavioural group treatment of panic disorder and agoraphobia in a psychiatric setting: A naturalistic study of effectiveness

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural group treatment of panic disorder and agoraphobia in a clinical setting. Fifty-three patients were offered treatment and assessed before, after and at follow-up 1 1/2-2 years after treatment. The study included an informal waiting-list control group of 40 patients. The investigation group achieved better outcome on most analyses with 47.2% found to be panic-free after treatment compared with 12.5% in the control group. Treatment gains were durable with 66.7% without panic attacks at follow-up. Most patients, however, still had major psychological problems after treatment. The outcomes of cognitive-behavioural group treatment of panic disorder in this study were modest compared with most controlled studies, possibly due to an unselected patient group with a high degree of agoraphobia.