Microgenetic styles of regulation among two nonpsychotic psychiatric groups.

The serial version of the Color-Word Test was employed to assess the regulative styles (or adaptive patterns) of two nonpsychotic psychiatric groups, one with Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia, the other without either of the latter two diagnoses. Agoraphobics (n = 30) were individually matched for sex, age, and education with nonagoraphobic patients and with nonclinical controls. Compared with normals, nonagoraphobic patients had fewer Stabilized (S) and more Cumulative-Dissociative (CD) Primary Types, fewer Cumulative (Cr) and more Dissociative (Dr) and Cumulative-Dissociative R-types (CDr), more Dissociative V-types (Dv). The agoraphobic sample showed styles more akin to those of normal persons than to the other psychiatric group with the exception of an elevated frequency of R-Dissociation (Vr type). Interestingly, very low scores on several secondary variables were more frequent in the clinical groups than in the nonclinical sample.