Panic and Agoraphobia Scale PAS
Panic and Agoraphobia Scale PAS overview
Creator and Context
The Panic and Agoraphobia Scale (PAS) is a 13 item measure of the severity of panic disorder and agoraphobia.
It was developed by Borwin Bandelow and published in 1995, with the manual following in 1999. Both clinician rated and self rated versions exist. The manual is commercially published by Hogrefe.
Presenting Conditions
The PAS produces five subscales:
Panic attacks
Agoraphobic avoidance
Anticipatory anxiety
Disability, covering restriction of activities and quality of life
Worries about health
A further item recording whether attacks were expected or unexpected is collected but not included in the total.
Administration
Available as a clinician rated and a self rated version. Each of the 13 items is rated on a 5 point scale from 0 to 4.
Desired Audience
Adults with panic disorder, agoraphobia or both.
Panic disorder is not one problem but four that travel together: the attacks, the avoidance, the anticipatory dread and the health worry. The PAS scores them separately, which is what tells you where treatment is actually working and where it is not.
Considerations
It is a severity and treatment monitoring instrument rather than a screener.
Severity band tables circulate widely but could not be traced to an authoritative source outside the published manual. The defensible statements are the item count, the scale and the total range.
The manual is commercially published. Licensing for digital or commercial use should be confirmed with Hogrefe.
How to score the Panic and Agoraphobia Scale PAS
Conducting the assessment
The person, or the clinician, rates 13 items on a 0 to 4 scale.
Interpretation
Items are summed to give a total from 0 to 52, with five subscale scores.
In a sample of 425 people with panic disorder or agoraphobia, the mean total was 23.5 with a standard deviation of 10.3. Severity bands are published in the Hogrefe manual and differ between the self rated and clinician rated versions.
Clinical Considerations
Track the subscales separately. Attacks often stop well before avoidance does, and treating the attacks alone leaves the person's life unchanged.
Use the same version, self rated or clinician rated, across time points. They are not interchangeable.
Where a well documented free alternative is needed, consider the Panic Disorder Severity Scale.
Panic and Agoraphobia Scale PAS use cases
Measuring severity of panic disorder and agoraphobia
Monitoring response to treatment across five distinct dimensions
Clinical trials in panic disorder
Category
Anxiety
Research Summary
Bandelow, B. (1995). Assessing the efficacy of treatments for panic disorder and agoraphobia. II. The Panic and Agoraphobia Scale. International Clinical Psychopharmacology, 10(2), 73 to 81.
Bandelow, B. (1999). Panic and Agoraphobia Scale (PAS): Manual. Hogrefe and Huber.
Tural, U., Fidaner, H., Alkin, T., & Bandelow, B. (2002). Assessing the severity of panic disorder and agoraphobia: Validity, reliability and objectivity of the Turkish translation of the Panic and Agoraphobia Scale. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 16(3), 331 to 340.
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Note on Assessment licensing
Some assessments are copyright protected and require a licence or the copyright holder's permission for clinical, commercial or digital use. Where that applies, obtaining and maintaining that permission is the responsibility of the practice or organisation using the assessment. Tacklit provides the digital administration, scoring and reporting. We do not grant, transfer or supply rights to the underlying instrument.
