Respiratory versus non respiratory subtypes of panic disorder with agoraphobia: cognitive behavioral therapy assessment

The objective of the present study was to verify the response of patients with panic disorder (agoraphobia) to existing cognitive-behavior therapy models (CBT) of two respiratory subtypes of panic disorder (PD): respiratory subtype (RS) and non respiratory subtype (NRS). We randomly selected a sample of 50 patients diagnosed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The medication used was tricycle or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants. Seventy-seven point six percent of the patients from both groups showed RS and 22.4% the NRS. The RS patients responded satisfactorily to the treatment with techniques of CBT decreasing anxiety, breathing symptoms and panic attacks. According to the global functioning assessment scale, RS patients improved from 55.8 to 70.9 in comparison with NRS ones.