Mortality among outpatients with anxiety disorders.

An earlier follow-up of inpatients with panic disorder attributed excess mortality among men to death from unnatural causes and from cardiovascular disease. The present study sought to determine the stability of this finding with a 12-year follow-up of 155 outpatients with anxiety neurosis. As in the first study, men were twice as likely to die as expected, and this excess in deaths was attributable to cardiovascular disease and suicide. Given the small numbers in both studies, however, the link between panic disorder and excess cardiovascular mortality remains tentative.