The Relationship of Agoraphobia and Panic in a Community Sample of Adolescents and Young Adults

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Abstract
THE RELATIONSHIP between uncued spontaneous panic attacks and agoraphobia has received considerable attention during the past 2 decades. Based on the influential work of Klein,1,2 and supported by subsequent neurobiological and cognitive studies,3-7 agoraphobia has been widely viewed as a secondary complication of spontaneous panic attacks or paniclike experiences. Consistent with this view, the DSM-IV8 classified agoraphobia under the category of panic disorder with agoraphobia and relegated the diagnosis of agoraphobia without a history of panic to a residual category.9 Agoraphobia without panic, in this scheme, shares the same essential features as agoraphobia with panic except that the focus of fear is on the occurrence of incapacitating or embarrassing paniclike symptoms or limited attacks rather than on full panic attacks.