After the acute phase treatment , as long as the drug was continued , the superiority of the combination over either monotherapy appeared to persist .
BACKGROUND Panic disorder can be treated with pharmacotherapy , psychotherapy or in combination , but the relative merits of combined therapy have not been well established .
OBJECTIVES To review evidence concerning short- and long-term advantages and disadvantages of combined psychotherapy plus antidepressant treatment for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia , in comparison with either therapy alone .
Treatment of agoraphobia with group exposure in vivo and imipramine.
Seventy-six white agoraphobic women , 21 to 45 years old , were treated with combined group exposure in vivo and imipramine or placebo in a r and omized double-blind study . A majority of the patients in both the placebo and imipramine groups showed moderate to marked improvement . However , imipramine therapy was significantly superior to placebo therapy on three of the four reported measures of improvement : primary phobia , spontaneous panic , and global improvement . There was a negative correlation between depression and outcome ; ie , the more depressed patients fared worse on several outcome measures than those who were less depressed . A comparison of these patients with agoraphobic women previously treated with imipramine and imaginal desensitization showed a superiority of exposure in vivo midway in treatment , but no significant difference between the two groups at the completion of therapy
After the acute phase treatment , as long as the drug was continued , the superiority of the combination over either monotherapy appeared to persist .
BACKGROUND Panic disorder can be treated with pharmacotherapy , psychotherapy or in combination , but the relative merits of combined therapy have not been well established .
OBJECTIVES To review evidence concerning short- and long-term advantages and disadvantages of combined psychotherapy plus antidepressant treatment for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia , in comparison with either therapy alone .