Brief Focused Cognitive Therapy of Panic Disorder

While it has been argued that panic disorder is essentially the result of biochemical abnormalities associated with genetic predisposition (Sheehan, 1982), a recent literature review by Rapee (1987) concluded that psychological theories have been better supported by recent empirical research in this area. A central cognitive component of panic disorder is catastrophic misinterpretation of physiological sensations (Rapee, 1987). Consistent with this finding, physiological assessment comparing generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) patients with panic disorders (PD) patients has shown that PD patients have a significantly greater somatic component to their anxiety (Barlow et al., 1984). For example, PD patients were found to have a higher heart rate at each point in assessment compared to GAD patients (Barlow et al., 1984). Furthermore, a study by Margraf, Ehlers & Roth (1987) has shown that providing false feed-