THE USE OF BIBLIOTHERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF PANIC - A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

The present study examines the effectiveness of a self-help approach with minimal therapist contact that targeted a panic-disordered population with mild agoraphobia. Thirty-one individuals meeting the criteria for panic disorder were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: (1) Wait-list control (WL); (2) Bibliotherapy using a self-help book (BT); and (3) Individual therapy using Guided Imaginal Coping (ITGIC). Total experimenter contact time for subjects in the WL and BT groups was for assessment purposes only and was 2.5 and 3.0 hours, respectively, ITGIC subjects required 10.5 hours. Results indicate that, in general, subjects in the BT group were significantly more improved than subjects in WL, and not significantly different from those in ITGIC. Implications for the treatment of panic-disordered individuals are discussed.