An overview of panic disorder, t...

An overview of panic disorder, treatments, and prognoses.
From Primary Psychiatry, an article entitled "Improving Treatment Response in Panic Disorder".

First, the bad news:

During clinical trials conducted under highly supervised conditions, 30% to 80% of patients with panic disorder achieve complete suppression of panic attacks. However, the trials typically occur over a period of weeks, which cannot determine how well patients fare under conditions of routine care over a period of years.11,12 To determine the degree of symptom relief achieved under conditions of routine care, investigators in the Harvard/Brown Anxiety Research Project (HARP) designed a prospective, longitudinal, observational study in which 711 subjects were evaluated with respect to the degree of symptom remission they experienced...

This study found that low rates of recovery and high rates of relapse were the norm.

Patients with panic disorder are likely to experience better physical functioning but worse role functioning than those with other serious medical or emotional disorders. For example, the Health-Related Quality of Life survey compared the role function and physical and emotional health of 443 patients with panic disorder to that of 9,839 patients with diabetes, hypertension, depression, arthritis, or heart disease. Patients with panic disorder reported good physical functioning, but greater role limitations due to emotional distress.23 The MacArthur Foundation Midlife Development study surveyed 2,074 individuals in the United States on the number of work-loss days (days home due to illness) and partial work days (physically present, but less productive) experienced in the previous month due to any chronic condition.5 On average, individuals with panic disorder reported 5.1 work impairment days, compared to 4.0 for patients with arthritis, 4.3 for major depression, 6.6 for heart disease, and 10.9 for cancer. Moreover, work loss due to poor productivity was as common as sick days, although largely undetectable from an employer perspective.