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Use of the Panic Attack Questionnaire-IV to assess non-clinical panic attacks and limited symptom panic attacks in Student and Community Samples

2007; Elsevier BV; Volume: 22; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.12.002

1873-7897

Peter J. Norton, Michael J. Zvolensky, Marcel O. Bonn‐Miller, Brian J. Cox, Gavin R. Norton,

Media Influence and Health

Since its development in the mid-1980s, the Panic Attack Questionnaire (PAQ) has been one of the more, if not the most, commonly used self-report tools for assessing panic attacks. The usage of the instrument, however, has come amid potential concerns that instructions and descriptions may lead to an over-estimate of the prevalence of panic attacks. Furthermore, the instrument has not been revised since 1992, despite changes in DSM-IV criteria and more recent developments in the understanding of panic attacks. As a result, this paper describes a revision of the PAQ to improve the instruction and descriptive set, and to fully assess features of panic derived from recent conceptualizations. Students meeting DSM-IV panic attack criteria and those endorsing panic attacks, but not meeting criteria, showed few differences with the exception that those not meeting DSM-IV criteria typically reported a longer onset-to-peak intensity time than did Panickers. Results were cross-validated and extended using an independent Community Sample. A full descriptive phenomenology of panic attacks is described, and future directions for studying panic attacks using the PAQ are presented.