I posted this to sci.psychology on April 3, and after seeing
your post here on panice disorder thought it would be
relevant.

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My research indicates that two schools of thought exist.
the literature promoting medication says it's the superior
treatment.  Not surprisingly, literature promoting cognitive
therapy also claims to be superior.

What are the facts?  Early in my research I didn't have a
bias towards either medication or cognitive therapy.  I
was interested in a treatment that worked.  After reading
journals published after 1986, the cognitive therapy camp
claims a higher success rate (approx 80%), a lower drop-out
rate, and no side effects associated with medication.

Lars-Goran Ost published an excellent article titled
"Applied Relaxation: Description of a coping technique and
a review of controlled studies."  This is from Behav. Res. Ther.,
vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 397-409, 1987.  The article provides
instructions on how to perform applied relaxation (AR).
Briefly, you start with two 15 minute sessions daily, and
progress in 8-12 weeks to performing 10-15 thirty second sessions
daily.

I'll snail mail this article to anyone interested (USA only please;
International please pay for postage).