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 .
Two-year follow-up of agoraphobics after exposure and imipramine.
Forty-five agoraphobic out- patients were r and omly assigned to treatment with imipramine or placebo , and also to brief therapist-aided exposure or relaxation . All patients did systematic self-exposure homework and recorded this in a diary . Forty of these patients were followed-up two years later with self-ratings and ratings by interviewers blind to their treatment conditions . About two-thirds of the patients remained improved or much improved in their phobias , with no significant difference between any of the four treatment conditions . Spontaneous panics also remained improved . The absence of an imipramine effect may reflect the lack of initial dysphoria ( anxiety-depression ) in this sample compared with other studies where drug-effects have been found . The post-treatment superiority ( evident at week 28 ) of patients who had therapist-aided exposure was no longer present at the two-year follow-up ; the others had caught up , presumably because of their self-exposure homework
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 .