Non-random associations between fears, beliefs and behaviors among panic patients

Self-report questionnaires have been used to compare panic patients' fears, anxious thoughts and behaviors with those of a group of controls. Individual items revealed significant differences between groups in all three areas: factor analysis revealed group differences in the pattern of intraquestionnaire associations between items. Correlational analysis of factor scores revealed significant group differences in the pattern of interquestionnaire associations. These findings only partly support a formulation of panic based upon ''catastrophic interpretations.'' On the other hand, they do provide evidence of cognitive rigidity among panic patients which can be interpreted as evidence of impaired effortful processing when anxious. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.