Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:622-626
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Recent life events and panic disorder
C Faravelli and S Pallanti
Institute of Nervous and Mental Disease, Florence, Italy.
The authors assessed life events during the 12 months before the onset of
panic disorder in 64 patients. Compared with a control group of 78 healthy
subjects, patients with panic disorder had higher scores however life
events were assessed, i.e., number of events, weighted normative scores,
contextual scores, and number of subjects with major events. Independent
life events (those beyond the subject's control) were also more numerous
and more severe among the patients. The larger number of events experienced
by the patients was due to the more frequent occurrence of life stress in
the month before the onset of panic disorder. Loss events had the strongest
relationship to panic disorder.
