EXPOSURE-BASED INTEGRATED VS PURE PSYCHODYNAMIC TREATMENT OF AGORAPHOBIC INPATIENTS

An integrated behavioral-psychodynamic treatment program for agoraphobic inpatients is presented. Patients receiving integrated treatment (IT) were compared with patients given psychodynamic therapy (PT). Patients in both groups improved significantly on almost all measures. The changes in IT patients were relatively stable at one year follow-up, whereas PT patients showed significant relapse. The results suggest different types of changes have occurred in patients exposed to the two treatment conditions, and only the integrated treatment resulted in stable improvement in most patients.