Predictors of quality of life in a long-term followup study in panic disorder patients after a clinical drug trial.

In a prospective 4 year followup study, 423 panic disorder patients participated in one of two international multicenter drug trials. They were to be reinterviewed 4 years after leaving the trials; 367 (86.8%) interviews were completed. At followup, 3 of 5 patients still suffered from at least occasional panic attacks, and 2 of 5 were still agoraphobic, but only about 20 percent of the patients were still disabled. The only baseline variables that predicted disabilities at followup were the disability measures at baseline themselves. Neither panic attack frequency nor phobic avoidance at baseline predicted disability at followup. Because of the lack of association between the presence of symptoms and of social disabilities, future clinical trials and other clinical and epidemiological studies should use independent symptom measures and quality-of-life measures simultaneously.