{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T15:43:28Z","timestamp":1789055008304,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":20,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]],"date-time":"2026-04-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1775001600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychiatry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Panic disorder (PD) exhibits marked clinical heterogeneity, and individual differences in autistic traits may contribute to variability in symptom severity and treatment course. This study examined whether autistic traits are associated with panic severity and agoraphobic avoidance during pharmacological treatment. In this retrospective observational study, 41 adults with DSM-5-diagnosed PD receiving guideline-based pharmacotherapy were followed over six months. Symptom trajectories were assessed using the Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS) at baseline, one month, and six months, while autistic traits were measured using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) at the six-month visit. Linear mixed-effects models and repeated-measures ANCOVA examined associations between autistic traits and symptom burden while adjusting for age and sex. PDSS total and agoraphobia scores declined significantly over time (p &amp;lt;.001). Higher AQ total scores were associated with greater overall PD severity (p = .043) and more pronounced agoraphobic avoidance (p = .015) across assessments. Exploratory analyses indicated that attention switching and social skills were associated with overall severity, whereas reduced imagination was specifically linked to agoraphobic severity. Age was independently associated with agoraphobic severity but not with overall panic severity. No significant Time \u00d7 AQ interactions were observed, indicating comparable symptom improvement across trait levels during the six-month treatment period. These findings suggest that elevated autistic traits are associated with persistently higher symptom burden during treatment without altering pharmacological response.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1753142","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]],"date-time":"2026-04-01T05:39:41Z","timestamp":1775021981000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Autistic traits and panic disorder severity: a retrospective six-month follow-up study"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Yunus","family":"Akke\u00e7ili","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, Dinar State Hospital","place":["Afyonkarahisar, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","volume-title":"Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders","year":"2022"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(06)69418-X","article-title":"Panic disorder","volume":"368","author":"Roy-Byrne","year":"2006","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1517\/14656566.2016.1109628","article-title":"Treatment-resistant panic disorder: a systematic review","volume":"17","author":"Freire","year":"2016","journal-title":"Expert Opin Pharmacother"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5","DOI":"10.1023\/a:1005653411471","article-title":"The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger Syndrome\/High-Functioning Autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians","volume":"31","author":"Baron-Cohen","year":"2001","journal-title":"J Autism Dev Disord"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1093\/med\/9780195371826.003.0031","article-title":"The broad autism phenotype","volume-title":"The oxford handbook of autism and the broad autism phenotype","author":"Losh","year":"2011"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"247","DOI":"10.1038\/s41398-022-01982-2","article-title":"Clinical autism subscales have common genetic liabilities that are heritable, pleiotropic, and generalizable to the general population","volume":"12","author":"Thomas","year":"2022","journal-title":"Transl Psychiatry"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1113","DOI":"10.1001\/archgenpsychiatry.2011.119","article-title":"Evidence that autistic traits show the same etiology in the general population and at the quantitative extremes (5%, 2.5%, and 1%)","volume":"68","author":"Robinson","year":"2011","journal-title":"Arch Gen Psychiatry"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.psychres.2023.115270","article-title":"Autistic traits distribution in different psychiatric conditions: A cluster analysis on the basis of the Adult Autism Subthreshold Spectrum (AdAS Spectrum) questionnaire","volume":"326","author":"Dell\u2019Osso","year":"2023","journal-title":"Psychiatry Res"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2023.1320558","article-title":"Presence and correlates of autistic traits among patients with social anxiety disorder","volume":"14","author":"Carpita","year":"2024","journal-title":"Front Psychiatry"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci11050621","article-title":"Investigating the relationship between autistic traits, ruminative thinking, and suicidality in a clinical sample of subjects with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder","volume":"11","author":"Dell\u2019Osso","year":"2021","journal-title":"Brain Sci"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comppsych.2014.05.005","article-title":"The impacts of elevated autism spectrum disorder traits on clinical and psychosocial features and long-term treatment outcome in adult patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder","volume":"55","author":"Mito","year":"2014","journal-title":"Compr Psychiatry"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"54","DOI":"10.1080\/13651501.2017.1354029","article-title":"Autism spectrum disorders in adult outpatients with obsessive compulsive disorder in the UK","volume":"22","author":"Wikramanayake","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int J Psychiatry Clin Pract"},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1017\/S1092852924000154","article-title":"Autistic traits underlying social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and panic disorders","author":"Dell'Osso","year":"2024","journal-title":"CNS Spectrums"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1017\/s1092852925000240","article-title":"Which panic-agoraphobic symptoms could be associated with the presence of autistic traits among patients with panic disorder","author":"Carpita","year":"2025","journal-title":"CNS Spectrums"},{"key":"B15","volume-title":"Generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults: management. Clinical guideline [CG113]","year":"2011"},{"key":"B16","volume-title":"Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with panic disorder","year":"2009"},{"key":"B17","article-title":"Otizm-Spektrum Anketi T\u00fcrk\u00e7e formunun psikometrik \u00f6zellikleri","volume":"11","author":"K\u00f6se","year":"2010","journal-title":"Anadolu Psikiyatri Dergisi"},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"8","DOI":"10.1002\/da.20011","article-title":"Panic Disorder Severity Scale: reliability and validity of the Turkish version","volume":"20","author":"Monkul","year":"2004","journal-title":"Depress Anxiety"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"82","DOI":"10.1007\/s11920-018-0949-0","article-title":"Psychosocial treatments targeting anxiety and depression in adolescents and adults on the autism spectrum: Review of the latest research and recommended future directions","volume":"20","author":"White","year":"2018","journal-title":"Curr Psychiatry Rep"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cpr.2016.08.001","article-title":"Effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy with people who have autistic spectrum disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis","volume":"49","author":"Weston","year":"2016","journal-title":"Clin Psychol Rev"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Psychiatry"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1753142\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]],"date-time":"2026-04-01T05:39:44Z","timestamp":1775021984000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1753142\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]]},"references-count":20,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1753142"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1753142","relation":{},"ISSN":["1664-0640"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1664-0640","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]]},"article-number":"1753142"}}