A test developed by B. Bandelow in 1995 assesses the severity of the disorder in sections, taking into account panic attacks, phobic avoidance, anticipatory anxiety, social restrictions, and somatization in patients diagnosed with panic disorder. It is administered to patients with panic disorder, with or without agoraphobia. Although it was developed primarily to monitor clinical drug trials, it is also used to assess the effectiveness of psychological treatments or to determine which dimension of the disorder responds to which form of treatment. It is not a diagnostic tool. The scale includes both a clinician-report and a patient-report form, each consisting of the same set of questions. It has five subscales. Each question is scored on a scale of 0–4. Both the clinician-report and patient-report forms contain a total of 14 questions each, organized into five sections.
The sections and the number of questions they contain are as follows:
Section A: Panic attacks and their characteristics (3+1): 3 rated questions (A1–A2–A3) and one unrated question (U)
Section B: Agoraphobia/avoidance behavior (3): (B1–B2–B3)
Section B.2: List all feared situations
If there are no feared situations = 0 points
1 situation = 1 point
2–3 situations = 2 points
4–8 situations = 3 points
More than 8 situations = 4 points
Section C: Anticipatory Anxiety (2): (C1–C2)
Section D: functional impairment (3), (D1–D2–D3)
Section E: Belief in Organic Disease (2) and was used for the weekly evaluation of clinical studies. (E1–E2)
Total Score = (Add the scores for all sections except “U”). Item “U” (whether attacks occur spontaneously or in anticipated situations) is not included in the total score; the arithmetic sum of the remaining 13 items constitutes the scale’s total score. The scoring for B.2. is explained above.
In both scales, the total score for each subscale represents that subscale’s score, while the sum of all subscales yields the total panic disorder and component severity score. The validity and reliability of the scale in Turkish were established by Tural and colleagues. According to a study conducted in our country, the highest specificity (92.94%) and sensitivity (92.00%) are achieved when the cutoff point is set between 11 and 12 points. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was found to be 0.88 for the observer form and 0.86 for the patient form. Test-retest reliability was found to be r = 0.82 for the observer form and r = 0.70 for the patient form. In conclusion, the “Panic and Agoraphobia Scale” possesses the characteristics required of a standardized tool for measuring the severity of panic disorder.