Prognostic utility of Locus of Control in treatment of agoraphobia

The purpose of the present study was to examine the prognostic utility of the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale with agoraphobics undergoing behavioral and pharmacological treatments. Fifty subjects meeting DSM-III criteria for agoraphobia, completed the instrument at pre- and post-assessments. Despite marked pre-post improvements, the scale was found to be lacking in discriminative power and clinical sensitivity to detect these changes. However, the scale was found to have utility as a prognostic index of post-treatment levels of improvement, with ‘externality’ being strongly associated with improvement. These findings and related issues are discussed.