Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:37:18.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agoraphobia: a Critical Review of the Concept

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

R. S. Hallam
R. S. Hallam*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Phobic avoidance has been widely accepted as the central feature of the agoraphobic syndrome, and the presence of agoraphobia has been used to define groups of subjects for clinical research. A review of the evidence suggests that agoraphobia should not be classified with the phobias; several lines of inquiry point to the conclusion that it is a variable feature of patients suffering from anxiety neurosis. Implications for research and problems with the present classification of neurotic affective disorders are noted.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 133 , Issue 4 , October 1978 , pp. 314 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1978 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agras, S., Sylvester, D. & Oliveau, D. (1969) The epidemiology of common fears and phobias. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 10, 151–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, H. D. (1971) Factorial structure and MMPI correlates of a fear survey schedule in a clinical population. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 9, 355–60.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Laude, R. & Bohnert, M. (1974) Ideational components of anxiety neurosis. Archives of General Psychiatry, 31, 319–25.Google Scholar
Buglass, D., Clarke, J., Henderson, A. S., Kreitman, N. & Presley, A. S. (1977) A study of agoraphobic housewives. Psychological Medicine, 7, 73–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Derogaitis, L. R., Klerman, G. L. & Lipman, R. S. (1972) Anxiety states and depressive neurosis. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 155, 392–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derogaitis, L. R., Lipman, R. S., Covi, L. & Rickels, K. (1972) Factorial invariance of symptom dimensions in anxious and depressive neuroses. Archives of General Psychiatry, 27, 659–65.Google Scholar
Dixon, J. J., De Monchaux, C. & Sandler, J. (1957) Patterns of anxiety: the phobias. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 30, 34–40.Google Scholar
Fleiss, J. L., Gurland, B. J. & Cooper, J. E. (1971) Some contributions to the measurement of psychopathology. British Journal of Psychiatry, 119, 647–56.Google Scholar
Gurney, C., Roth, M., Garside, R. F., Kerr, T. A. & Schapira, K. (1972) Studies on the classification of the affective disorders II. The relationship between anxiety states and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 162–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafner, J. (1976) Fresh symptoms emergence after intensive behaviour therapy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 378–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hallam, R. S. & Hafner, J. (1978) Fears of phobic patients: factor analyses of self-report data. Behaviour, Research and Therapy, 16, 1–6.Google Scholar
Hamilton, M. (1959) The assessment of anxiety states by rating. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 32, 50–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hersen, M. (1973) Self-assessment of fear. Behaviour Therapy, 4, 241–57.Google Scholar
Lawlis, G. F. (1971) Response styles of a patient population on the fear survey schedule. Behaviour, Research and Therapy, 9, 95–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mandler, G. (1975) Mind and Emotion. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M. (1969) Fears and Phobias. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Marks, I. M. (1970a) Agoraphobic syndrome (phobic anxiety state). Archives of General Psychiatry, 23, 538–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marks, I. M. (1970b) The classification of phobic disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 116, 377–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marks, I. M. & Herst, E. R. (1970) A survey of 1,200 agoraphobics in Britain. Social Psychiatry, 5, 16–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marks, I. M. & Lader, M. (1973) Anxiety states (anxiety neurosis): a review. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 156, 3–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mathews, A. (1977) Recent developments in the treatment of agoraphobia. Behavioural Analysis and Modification, 2, 64–75.Google Scholar
Meikle, S. & Mitchell, M. C. (1974) Factor analysis of the fear survey schedule with phobics. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40, 44–6.Google Scholar
Roth, M. (1959) The phobic-anxiety-depersonalization syndrome. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 52 (8), 587–95.Google Scholar
Roth, M. Garside, R. S. & Gurney, C. (1965) Clinical statistical enquiries into the classification of anxiety states and depressive disorders, in Proceedings of Leeds Symposium on Behavioural Disorders. London: May and Baker.Google Scholar
Roth, M. Gurney, C., Garside, R. F. & Kerr, T. A. (1972) Studies in the classication of affective disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 147–61.Google Scholar
Rothstein, W., Holmes, G. R. & Boblett, W. E. (1972) A factor analysis of the fear survey schedule with a psychiatric population. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 28, 78–30.3.0.CO;2-A>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schapira, K., Kerr, T. A. & Roth, M. (1970) Phobias and affective illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 25–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snaith, R. P. (1968) A clinical investigation of phobia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 673–97.Google Scholar
Solyom, L., Beck, P., Solyom, C. & Hugel, R. (1974) Some etiological factors in phobic neurosis. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 19, 69–77.Google Scholar
Woodruff, R. H., Guze, S. B. & Clayton, P. J. (1972) Anxiety neurosis among psychiatric outpatients. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 13, 165–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.