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Treatment of panic disorder with alprazolam and imipramine: clinical relevance of DSM III dysthymia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

R Rosenberg
Affiliation:
Institute for Basic Research in Psychiatry, Psychiatric Hospital, University Hospital of Aarhus, Skovagervej 2, DK-8240 , Risskov, Denmark
P Nøhr Jensen
Affiliation:
Institute for Basic Research in Psychiatry, Psychiatric Hospital, University Hospital of Aarhus, Skovagervej 2, DK-8240 , Risskov, Denmark
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Summary

The presence of affective symptoms in panic disorder has often been reported. Data from The Cross-National Collaborative Panic Study (second phase) were analysed to address the role of dysthymia in panic disorder with respect to previous illness, current psychopathology and the outcome during an 8-week study of alprazolam and imipramine. A group of dysthymic patients without current or past major depressive episode was studied. The prevalences of dysthymia varied markedly across participating sites: 2–13%. Only a few clinical characteristics of dysthymic panic disorder patients were found. They had suffered from panic disorder for a few years more than patients without affective disorder and they were slightly older. The outcome after the 8-week drug trial was not significantly different from that of patients without affective disorder. Hence, dysthymia was not suggested to be of major clinical relevance for the phenomenology of panic disorder or for the outcome of drug treatment.

Type
Original article
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier, Paris 1994

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