Antecedents to Panic Disorder in Nonreferred Adults.

Objective: Previous work has shown thatchildhood anxiety disorders are unique antecedents for panicdisorder. The current study examined both childhood and adultcomorbid disorders as potential antecedent disorders to panicdisorder in a large sample of nonreferred adults.

Methods: Subjects were 1018 adults with (N = 58)and without (N = 960) panic disorder who were derived from a sampleoriginally ascertained through family studies of probands withand without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); datawere obtained from 1988 to 1996. Classification and regressiontrees (CART) analysis was used to examine anxiety and nonanxietydisorders antecedent to panic disorder.

Results: CART analysis showed that separationanxiety disorder, social phobia, and simple phobia were uniquepredictors of subsequent panic disorder.

Conclusion: These results support and expandpreviously reported findings in referred samples documenting thatcomorbid anxiety disorders are unique antecedent risk factors forpanic disorder.