Rates of isolated sleep paralysis in outpatients with anxiety disorders
Section snippets
Participants
Participants for this study were outpatients seeking treatment for a primary diagnosis of panic disorder with or without agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder (generalized type), or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Individuals completed the evaluations for this study as part of pre-treatment assessment. All participants provided written informed consent approved by the institutional review board. Anxiety diagnoses were assessed by semi-structured interviews with either the Structured Clinical
Results
Sixty-one individuals (44.3% women; mean ± S.D. age = 43 ± 13 years) completed the SEQ, including 24 (39.3%) with a primary diagnosis of panic disorder, 18 (29.5%) with a primary diagnosis of social anxiety disorder, and 19 (31.1%) with a primary diagnosis of GAD. The primary disorder was defined as the disorder accounting for the primary source of distress and disability for the patient and for which the patient was seeking treatment. Comorbidity was high, with 17% of individuals with a primary
Discussion
Overall, we found a near 20% rate of ISP in our sample of outpatients seeking treatment for anxiety disorders, with no significant difference in rates among patients with a primary diagnosis of panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, or GAD in our primarily Caucasian sample. These findings are in contrast to low rates of ISP among those with non-panic anxiety disorders reported by Paradis et al. (1997), particularly for Caucasian subjects. Notably, these rates in the Paradis et al. (1997)
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