Childhood and family characteristics in panic and generalized anxiety disorders.

The author compared 32 patients who had generalized anxiety disorders with 29 patients who had panic disorder and agoraphobia with panic attacks. He observed that patients with generalized anxiety disorder more often had lost their fathers and/or mothers before the age of 16 years, whereas patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia with panic attacks had more often experienced chronic anxiety in childhood. More parents and siblings of patients with panic disorder had affective disorders and alcohol abuse than did parents and siblings of patients with anxiety disorders.