A comparative evaluation of panicogenic processes and quality of life in a sample of non-clinical panickers and age and sex matched non-panicking controls☆

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Abstract

Contemporary models of panic attacks suggest that panic problems exist on a continuum and highlight the need to understand what differentiates persons who have never had a panic attack versus persons who have had panic attacks but have not yet developed panic disorder (i.e., non-clinical panickers). Accordingly, the present study evaluated several theoretically-relevant factors that were expected to distinguish a sample of (conservatively defined) non-clinical panickers (n = 72) from an age and sex-matched comparison sample of non-panicking controls (n = 72). As expected, panickers were characterized by higher levels of anxiety sensitivity, perceived uncontrollability, and state and trait anxiety relative to their non-panic counterparts. Moreover, higher levels of trait anxiety emerged as a predictor of poorer quality of life among panickers. Results are considered within the context of biopsychosocial continuum models of panic attacks and panic disorder and future directions for research are suggested.

Section snippets

A comparative evaluation of panicogenic processes and quality of life in a sample of non-clinical panickers and age and sex matched non-panicking controls

Panic attacks are abrupt and highly aversive psychophysiological events that are distinguishable from anxiety (Barlow, 2002) and covary with wide-ranging behavioral impairment, poor quality of life, and psychological suffering (McNally, 1994; Mendlowicz & Stein, 2000; Rubin et al., 2000). Panic attacks are associated with increased risk for multiple types of psychopathology and frequently co-occur with all of the anxiety disorders (Barlow, 2002). Panic attacks are quite common in the general

Participants

A total of 381 undergraduate volunteers (179 females, Mage = 18.86 years, S.D. = 1.83, range = 17–27) recruited from a large University in the Northeastern United States received course credit for their participation. The majority of the participants were Caucasian (64.90%), 9.90% were African American, 9.70% were Hispanic, 8.10% were Asian American, and the remainder (6.56%) reported that they were either biracial or of a different ethnicity.

Measures

Panic Attack Questionnaire-Revised (PAQ-R; Cox, Norton, &

Descriptive analyses

All panickers, by definition, reported at least one panic attack in the last year (M = 3.88, S.D. = 2.89; range 1–15). Also, 59.7% reported at least one panic attack in the last month (M = 1.12, S.D. = 1.67; range 0–10), and 25% reported having had a panic attack in the week prior to the assessment (M = 0.43, S.D. = 1.03; range 0–7). Panickers reported, on average, having had panic attacks for 3.43 years (S.D. = 3.83; range <1 month to 18.5 years), and 76% of them reported four or more of the DSM-IV panic

Discussion

The central aim of the present study was to further elucidate the nature and phenomenology of non-clinical panic, particularly with regard to conceptually-relevant psychological risk factors, individual difference variables, and quality of life impairments that are known to co-vary with panic disorder. A related aim was to evaluate the extent to which theoretically-relevant anxiety-related risk factors predict the frequency and severity of panic attacks; an approach that has implications for

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    ☆

    Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting (2000, November) of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, New Orleans, LA.

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