Two-phase treatment of Panic Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder with associated personality features resulting from childhood abuse: Case study

The treatment of a woman diagnosed with panic disorder with Agoraphobia and posttraumatic stress disorder and maladaptive personality features resulting from childhood sexual and physical abuse is described. The treatment consisted of nine sessions of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia and nine sessions of implosive therapy (IT) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. CBT decreased scores on the clinical scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), but did not reduce revised Impact of Event Scale (IES) scores, or Dimensional Assessment of Personality Problems-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ). IT decreased scores on the IES and the DAPP-BQ, and further reduced scores on the PAI. The results are discussed with regard to Levis (1985)’ implosive theory of psychopathology, which suggests that psychopathology can be explained by Pavlovian conditioning of serial cues and instrumentally conditioned avoidance responses.