Temporal relationship between panic attack onset and phobic avoidance in agoraphobia

In a sample of 28 members of an agoraphobia self-help group, each patient reported a history of spontaneous panic attacks. The onset of panic attacks preceded the development of agoraphobic restrictions by an average of 9 yr, and 79% of the sample attributed the development of their agoraphobia to their experience of panics. These results provide the first empirical support for the hypothesis that agoraphobia is secondary to panic attacks.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25917/1/0000480.pd