« Survey finds many primary-care physicians may overlook depression, mental illness in elderly | Main | Maryland Closes Some State Hospital Beds »
January 21, 2008
Study indicates 12-week talk therapy course may benefit patients with panic disorder
WebMD (1/18, Mann) reports that according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association and published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the "often debilitating symptoms of panic disorder" may be curbed by a "12-week course of talk therapy."
For the study, researchers followed "49 people with panic disorder," and found that "more than 70 percent of those in the talk therapy group showed significantly less anxiety and other panic symptoms as measured by a standard scale assessing panic symptoms." The research team found that of the participants who "received applied relaxation training," 39 percent showed improvement in their symptoms.
Barbara Milrod, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, said that the "psychodynamic psychotherapy regimen used in the study was so successful that the American Psychiatric Association is in the process of changing its guidelines to reflect the new findings."
Related Links:
- "Study Shows Improvement in Anxiety and Other Panic Disorder Symptoms," Denise Mann, WebMD, January 17, 2008.
- "ABSTRACT: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Panic Disorder," Barbara Milrod, M.D., et. al., American Journal of Psychiatry, 164:265-272, February 2007.
Posted by admin at January 21, 2008 01:57 PM