Rorschach-profile in panic disorder

The Rorschach test was applied to four groups: 41 Panic Disorder (PD), 14 Major Depression (MD), 11 Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and 18 normal subjects. The aims were to describe the test profile of PD patients and to discuss implications for cognitive processing ability and personality structure. A hypothesis of a borderline personality structure in PD patients, based on psychodynamic literature, was tested, but was not unambiguously supported. A "loose", borderline-like personality structure and disturbances in processing abilities, however, characterized PD-patients. The normal subjects surprisingly provided many Fabulized Combinations, a response type, considered suspect of borderline pathology, but also showed more signs of integrative and synthesizing abilities than the other groups.