The test, which determines the severity of the disease in sub-sections by taking into account panic attacks, phobic avoidance, anticipatory anxiety, restriction in social relations, belief in physical illness in patients diagnosed with Panic Disorder, was developed by B. Bandelow in 1995. It is applied to patients with panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. Although it was developed especially for monitoring clinical drug studies, it is also used to determine the effectiveness of psychological treatments or which dimension of this disorder responds to which form of treatment. It is not a tool used in diagnostic evaluation. The scale has clinical observer and patient self-report forms consisting of the same questions. It has five subunits. Each question is scored between 0-4. Both observer and self-report forms contain a total of 14 questions under five headings each.
The headings and the number of questions they cover are as follows
Title A: panic attacks and their characteristics (3+1): 3 graded questions (A1-A2-A3) and one ungraded question (U)
Topic B: agoraphobia/avoidance behavior (3): (B1- B2-B3)
B.2. Title: Include all feared situations
If there is no feared situation= 0 points
1 status= 1 point
2-3 situation= 2 points
4-8 cases= 3 points
More than 8 cases = 4 points
C heading: anticipatory anxiety(2): (C1-C2)
D heading: disability(3), (D1-D2-D3)
E heading: used for organic disease belief(2) and weekly evaluation of clinical trials (E1-E2)
Total Score= (sum the scores for all items except U). Excluding item "U" (whether the attacks occur spontaneously or in expected situations) from the total score, the arithmetic sum of the remaining 13 items constitutes the total score of the scale. B.2. scoring is described above.
In both scales, the sum of the item scores of each item gives the item score and the sum of all items gives the total panic disorder and its components severity score. The Turkish validity and reliability of the scale was conducted by Tural et al. As a result of the study conducted in our country, the highest specificity (92.94%) and sensitivity (92.00%) were achieved when the cut-off point was between 11/12 points. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 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" has the characteristics of a standardized panic disorder severity measurement tool.