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Title: Major Depression Appears to Influence Patient Risk of Comorbidity With Panic Disorder: Presented at ADAA

"Major Depression Appears to Influence Patient Risk of Comorbidity With Panic Disorder: Presented at ADAA"

By Jerry Ingram MIAMI, FL -- March 17, 2004 -- Individuals with major depression and panic disorder might be at risk of developing a broader range of anxiety disorders than individuals with panic order without depression, researchers said here on March 13th in a poster session at the Anxiety Disorders Association of America 24th Annual Conference. "It makes a difference if you're treating a patient with panic disorder when they have comorbid major depression as far as their risk for other comorbid disorders. Depression is what really puts the patient at risk for a broader spectrum of anxiety disorders," said lead researcher Dina R. Hirshfeld-Becker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Director of Anxiety Research, Pediatric Psychopharmacology Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. For this study, researchers enrolled 832 adults and assigned them to 1 of 4 groups: 87 had both panic disorder and major depression (PD+MD); 29 with panic disorder without major depression (PD); 34 with major depression without comorbid panic disorder (MD); and 682 control subjects with neither panic disorder nor major depression. In comprehensive, structured diagnostic interviews the researchers determined subjects' psychopathology across the lifecycle. They found that patients with panic disorder were more likely to have comorbid agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, major depression was significantly associated with social phobia, psychoactive substance use disorders, antisocial personality disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, independently of the comorbidity with the other disorder. In addition, the researchers observed that overanxious disorder and generalised anxiety disorder were associated with both panic disorder and major depression. Dr. Hirshfeld-Becker and her team suggested "Major depression has important moderating effects on patterns of comorbidity of panic disorder in referred adults." [Study title: Moderating Effects of Major Depression on Patterns of Comorbidity in Patients With Panic Disorder. Abstract 36]

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