Citation

Lepola U, Koponen H, Leinonen E. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 1996; 93(3): 181-183.

Affiliation

Psychiatric Research Clinic, Kuopio, Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8739663

Abstract

A clinical sample of 55 patients meeting the diagnostic criteria for panic disorder (PD) were enrolled in this long-term study. The patients were treated initially with alprazolam or imipramine during a period of 9 weeks. A clinical psychiatric examination was carried out at the beginning and at the end of the initial treatment period and 3 and 6 years after the enrollment. Although most of the patients (74%) had no panic attacks at the end of the 6-year follow-up period, 9 (18%) had major depression and 6 (11%) severe suicidality. Seven of these depressive patients also suffered from alcoholism. Sixty per cent of the patients were still on medication at the end of the follow-up. Depression, suicidality and alcoholism seem to be the long-term consequences of PD.

Language: en