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KMID : 1143820130090010025
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Anxiety and Mood
2013 Volume.9 No. 1 p.25 ~ p.30
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Effect of Short-Term Pharmacotherapy on Anxiety Sensitivity, Quality of Life and Functional Disability in Panic Disorder Patients
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Oh Yun-Hye
Choi Kwan-Woo
Kim Bo-Ra
Heo Jung-Yoon
Yu Bum-Hee
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Abstract
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Objective : Panic disorder is a chroni, debilitating illness, and has been known to be affected by high anxiety sensitivity and a poor quality of life. We examined if 12 weeks of pharmacotherapy with escitalopram could affect anxiety sensitivity, quality of life, and general disability in patients with panic disorder.
Method : We enrolled 27 patients who met the DSM-IV-TR criteria for panic disorder, with or without agoraphobia, and completed 12 weeks of escitalopram treatment. We enrolled 29 normal control subjects who were matched for age and sex compared with the panic patients. All subjects were assessed using the Hamilton Rating Scale for depression (HAM-D), Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A), Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS), Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised (ASI-R), WHO quality of life assessment (WHO-QOL) and Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) before and after 12 weeks of treatment.
Result : Panic disorder patients had a higher Anxiety sensitivity, a poorer Quality of life, and significant disability than normal control subjects at baseline. After the treatment, Panic disorder patients showed significant improvement in the severity of panic symptoms in terms of the HAM-A p<0.001), HAM-D (p<0.001) in addition, the reached a remission state in terms of the PDSS score. They also showed significant improvement in the ASI-R (p<0.001), WHO-QOL (p<0.001) and SDS (p<0.001), but mean scores of the ASI-R, WHO-QOL and SDS in panic disorder patients were did not reach normal levels.
Conclusion : This study suggests that 12 weeks of pharmacotherapy with escitalopram could improve anxiety sensitivity, quality of life, and disability in panic disorder patients, although their anxiety sensitivity, quality of life and disability were not yet normalized after short-term pharmacotherapy. Thus, long-term pharmacotherapy may be necessary for panic disorder patients in order to get an optimal clinical response in terms of anxiety sensitivity, quality of life, and general disability.
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KEYWORD
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Panic disorder, Escitalopram, Anxiety sensitivity, Quality of life, Disability
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