Psychophysiological outcome of behavioral and pharmacological treatments of agoraphobia.

62 severe and chronic agoraphobics (aged 18–65 yrs) participated in a 2?×?2 factorial investigation of the relative and combined effectiveness of behavior therapy (prolonged in vivo exposure) and pharmacotherapy (imipramine). Treatment was conducted in 12 weekly sessions. Imipramine or placebo was administered in 25-mg tablets at bed time, with 25-mg increases every 2nd day until the maximum tolerable amount was achieved. Tripartite assessments were conducted at pretreatment and at 4 wks, 8 wks, 12 wks, and 1-mo posttreatment. Differential temporal response and treatment patterns were identified across the psychophysiological domains. Ss receiving medication showed equivocal patterns of positive and negative responses. Decreases in arousal were noted with Ss who received prolonged exposure. Synchrony/desynchrony phenomena yielded significant findings with regard to both process and clinical outcome status. Exploratory analyses were performed to identify potential mediating factors in physiological outcome, and a psychophysiological comparison was also undertaken contrasting agoraphobics prior to and following treatment with normative (nonphobic) cohorts. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)