Characteristics and Factor Analysis of Panic Attack Symptoms in Non-clinical Paniclcer

Abstract

To address the panic attack prevalence and symptom characteristics in a nonclinical population, we surveyed female college undergraduates. Four hundred and fifty-seven subjects completed the Panic Attack Questionnaire(PAQ), a measure frequently used in nonclinical panic research, and the Trait from of the State-Trate Anxiety Inventory(SDTAI-X), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory(BAI). The results are as follows. 1) One hundred and forty-five(31.7%) subjects reported having experienced panic. 2) Panickers were significantly more likely to have a family member who had experienced panic attacks. 3) There was a significant correlation between panic attack frequency and BAI and STAI. 4) Factor analysis of panic symptoms revealed six significant factors ; two factors involving panic cognition and four factor involving physiologic symptoms. this suggests that panic attack symptoms are not unidimensional but multidimensional. 5) Two factors involving cognition were DSM-III-R cognitive symptoms and non-DSM-III-R cognitive symptoms, and there was a significant correlation between DSM-II-R cognitive symptoms and BAI and STAI-X2 scores. The authors conclude that panic attack experience is higher than expected in the nonclinicla population, and that panic cognition is important in the generation of anxiety symptoms. Further study of the patterns of panic symptoms in larger group of clinical and nonclinicla panicker is encouraged by these preliminary findings.