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 .
Imipramine and brief therapists-aided exposure in agoraphobics having self-exposure homework.
Forty-five chronic agoraphobics were r and omly assigned to treatment by placebo or imipramine in doses up to 200 mg/day for 28 weeks . All patients also had systematic self-exposure homework with an instruction manual . In addition , half of each drug group had therapist-aided exposure and half had therapist-aided relaxation , each totalling three hours . Patients in both drug groups improved substantially and maintained their gains for one year of follow-up . Imipramine had no significant therapeutic effect despite satisfactory plasma levels and significant drug side effects . Patients ' low initial Hamilton depression scores might explain the absence of any drug effect . Antidepressants may be ineffective for agoraphobics who have normal mood . Brief therapist-aided exposure improved phobias and panics to a significant but limited extent , and is a useful adjuvant to self-exposure homework , which can be a powerful therapeutic agency by itself
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 .