A study of panic patients with and without depression.

In a sample of 94 panic patients, 43 patients (45.7%) had comorbid depression. In majority of patients, the comorbid depression was severe enough to be diagnosed as major depression. Panic patients with depression were more severely functionally impaired and had more generalized anxiety symptoms as compared to pure panic patients. There were no significant differences between panic patients with primary and secondary depression on any of the clinical variables. Findings from the present study are in agreement with earlier studies in that panic disorder comorbid with depression is a much more severe illness than pure panic disorder.