Serial Color-Word Test Predicts Outcome of Pharmacological Treatment for Panic Disorder

Abstract

A group of 50 outpatients with Panic Disorder were given the Serial Color-Word Test at the beginning of a standard pharmacological treatment (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and benzodiazepines). A single treating psychiatrist, blind to test results, judged therapy outcome at a 5-mo. follow-up. Among the main types of adaptation to conflict assessed by the test (Stabilized, Cumulative, Dissociative, and Cumulative-Dissociative), the Stabilized pattern predicted .1 good therapy outcome. Response to therapy among the patients with a Stabilized pattern was judged as more often good and less often moderate or poor, compared with the members of the other three adaptation classes ( p = .004), and specifically with the patients resorting to a Cumulative strategy ( p= .005).