Panic-Fear in Asthma

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Apparently there is a strong relationship between the degree of the patient''s anxiety and the medical intractability of his illness. Psychotherapeutic interventions designed to alleviate patient anxiety are noticeably inconsistent in ahcieving meaningful alleviation of the patient''s asthma. This apparent paradox was studied by positing the existence of 2 types of anxiety: asthma-specific anxiety, as indexed by panic-fear symptomatology scores of the Asthma Symptom Checklist; and characterological and pervasive anxiety, as indexed by panic-fear personality scores of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Long term medical outcome was influenced by the combination of these types of anxiety. When high asthma-specific anxiety coexisted with high characterological anxiety, medical outcome following intensive long term medical treatment was exceptionally poor. When high asthma-specific anxiety coexisted with average levels of characterological anxiety, medical outcome was exceptionally good. The theoretical distinctions between signal anxiety and anxiety concomitant with a lack of basic ego resources were discussed.