Impact of life events on subjects with panic disorder and on comparison subjects.

A questionnaire measure of major life events was given to 64 subjects with diagnoses of panic disorder with agoraphobia, 33 subjects with other anxiety disorders, and 34 nonanxious subjects. Anxious subjects indicated the life events that had occurred in the 6-month period immediately before their current disorder began and rated the impact of each event on a 7-point scale. Nonanxious subjects made the same ratings for a 6-month period 1 1/2-2 years before the study. There was no significant difference between groups in the number of life events reported. However, anxious subjects rated these events as having a significantly greater negative impact than did nonanxious subjects.