[Guest]

Dr.,

I was looking at the effective treatments discussed on this website for Panic Disorder and noticed that the only non-medication treatment listed as effective was exposure therapy.

This surprises me because I take medication and CBT (not exposure therapy though, I am not agoraphobic nor do I have specific situational triggers). Although exposure therapy I am sure is helpful for related phobias and agoraphobic individuals, I don't see how it is very effective for PD sufferers without these related complications. On the other hand, more broad-based Cognitive and Behavioral therapy relating to understanding and interpreting symptoms of anxiety as well as behavioral exercises for coping with and reducing symptoms has helped me quite a bit (although I doubt it would be nearly as effective without the medication, at least not in the short-term), and there seems to be a considerable amount of evidence available to support its effectiveness (both alone, depending on the severity, and even more so in combination with anti-depressants). Yet, it is not listed as an effective treatment on this website. Why is that?

Thanks as always. By the way, your advice regarding waiting a little longer for the Celexa was right on, as usual. Although I may still need an increase at some point (my goal is to completely remove the symptoms if at all possible rather than reduce them to an acceptable degree), I seem to have stabilized again over the past week. I do still have some symptoms, but after almost 6 weeks I can finally look back at the progress and actually believe that there has been a true benefit (even with the 4 day episode I had the previous week). This has been crucial for me so that I can stop questioning whether I am getting benefit from my meds and therapy and move on to returning to normality again.
Thank you.

[Guest]

CBT is an effective treatment. We will need to update our web site soon. Glad things are heading in the right direction for you.
[quote] Dr. ,

I was looking at the effective treatments discussed on this website for Panic Disorder and noticed that the only non-medication treatment listed as effective was exposure therapy... [/quote]