Evaluation of effect of brief-intensive cognitive behavior therapy on symptoms severity in relation with catastrophic cognition in patients with panic disorder: a randomized controlled trial

• Published in: Current medical research and opinion 2024-04, Vol.40 (4), p.1-699
• Main Authors: Piro, Rasoul Sabri, Taha, Perjan Hashim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0300-7995; 1473-4877
• DOI: 10.1080/03007995.2024.2328651

Due to a dearth of evidence, we examined the effectiveness of brief-intensive CBT on symptom severity and catastrophic cognition in patients with panic disorder (PD). In this randomized controlled trial, 155 patients were assigned to either the experimental group (2 successive days of brief-intensive CBT-3 hours per day) or the control group (regular pharmacotherapy only). After excluding ineligible participants, 20 patients in the brief intensive CBT group and 18 patients in the control group completed the study and were included in the final analysis. The primary outcome was symptom severity, and the secondary outcome was catastrophic cognition, assessed by the Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS) for symptoms severity and the Agoraphobic Cognition Scale (ACS) for cognitive assessment, respectively. The study showed that after one month of treatment, the PDSS (1.70 vs. 4.78; p = 0.0172) in the brief-intensive CBT group was significantly lower compared to the control group in contrast with the ACS (5.10 vs. 5.44; p = 0.8533). The mean score of PDSS and ACS significantly decreased from 21.60 to 1.7 (p