Behandlingsstudie avseende tre sessioners exponeringsfokuserad KBT vid panikångest. En pilotstudie vid en vårdcentral i södra Sverige.

Sammanfattning: This study investigated the short-term outcome of a three session exposure in vivo treatment – E-CBT – for eight primary health care patients with panic disorder, who used distraction techniques as their most common safety behavior. The primary question was if this abbreviated treatment that, besides initial psychoeducation, solely used exposure in vivo as therapeutic intervention, could show short- term effects that were comparable to the effects commonly seen in standard CBT approaches to panic disorder. Subjects were eight primary health care patients recruited from routine primary health care. Treatment consisted of three weekly sessions with initial psychoeducation followed by exposure in vivo alone. Subjects were randomised to a baseline period of one, two or three weeks. Outcome measurements were six commonly used self-rating scales assessing panic symptoms and agoraphobia. Measurements were taken at baseline, post treatment and at two follow-up occasions; one and two weeks after termination of treatment. Primary outcome measure was Panic Disorder Severity Scale Self-Report (PDSS-SR). Two of the instruments and another one assessing the quality of the therapeutic alliance, were also administrated during treatment sessions to enable a closer study of the possible changes during treatment. The study employed an experimental single case-design. On a group level, significant improvements were observed on all outcome measures. Within-group effect sizes were high (Cohen´s d ranging from 1.17–3.00). 75 % of the subjects showed a reliable change on the primary outcome measure PDSS-SR, and 50 % clinical significance. Analyses at the individual level were carried out to study changes over time for each participant. No significant correlation was found between participants ratings of the quality of the therapeutic alliance during the treatment period and their outcome on PDSS-SR. The results as a whole, give support to the primary hypothesis of the study that E-CBT can show short-term effects that are comparable to the effects of standard CBT for patients with panic anxiety. The results of this study provide a basis for pursuing and further developing the exposure technique in treatment of panic disorder and for testing it in group designs with larger samples and different therapists.