Serial color-word test predicts outcome of pharmacological treatment for panic disorder

Percept Mot Skills. 2001 Aug;93(1):86-8. doi: 10.2466/pms.2001.93.1.86.

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 a 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).

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological
  • Adult
  • Benzodiazepines / therapeutic use*
  • Color Perception*
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Panic Disorder / drug therapy*
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Psychological Tests
  • Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / therapeutic use*
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Vocabulary*

Substances

  • Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors
  • Benzodiazepines