Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 2006, 34, 359–363 Printed in the United Kingdom doi:10.1017/S1352465806002980 Interpersonal Fears among Patients with Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia Asle Hoffart Research Institute, Modum Bad, Norway Ann Hackmann University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, UK Harold Sexton UNN-Åsgard Hospital, Tromsoe, Norway Abstract. To study the role of catastrophic interpersonal cognitions in panic disorder with or without agoraphobia, a questionnaire listing such items – the Interpersonal Panic Fear Questionnaire (IPFQ) – was constructed and administered to English and Norwegian samples. The results of the factor analysis indicated a three-factor structure of interpersonal fears: fear of negative evaluation, fear of being trapped and separated from safe persons and places, and fear of being neglected. The corresponding three IPFQ scales had satisfactory internal consistency and sensitivity to change following therapeutic intervention, discriminated well between diagnostic groups, and correlated moderately with measures of other dimensions of panic disorder and agoraphobia. The construct validity of the interpersonal fears was further supported by mostly significant relationships between the IPFQ scales and a measure of agoraphobic avoidance, when the contribution of intrapersonal (physical, loss of control) fears was controlled. Keywords: Panic disorder with agoraphobia, interpersonal fears, measurement. Introduction Fears of incapacitating events happening to the person’s mind or body (hereafter described as intrapersonal fears) are given the status of important maintaining factors in the cognitive model of panic disorder (Clark et al., 1994). However, several authors have noted that interpersonal fears may also play a prominent role in panic disorder, and perhaps more particularly in Reprint requests to Asle Hoffart, Research Institute, Modum Bad, N-3370 Vikersund, Norway. E-mail: asle.hoffart@ modum-bad.no An extended version and a copy of the instrument (IPFQ) are also available online in the table of contents for this issue: http://journals.cambridge.org/jid_BCP. © 2006 British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies