When patients with panic disorders are divided into two groups, those that are without any signs of phobic avoidance and those that are frankly agoraphobic, we see a differential premorbid history of separation anxiety in childhood with school phobia. The former group we found to be without these problems, while the latter demonstrated a history of school phobia in the majority of cases (60 per cent). This may indicate that uncomplicated panic disorder and agoraphobia with panic attacks are not always differential cross-sections of the same disease process, or different levels of severity of the same psychopathological entity, but may represent illnesses best not conceptualized as lying on a continuum. Further research will be served by separating panic disorder (DSM-III 300.01) into two groups: uncomplicated panic disorder, and panic disorder with limited phobic avoidance, which will exist along with the present agoraphobia with panic attacks, perhaps best renamed panic disorder with extensive phobic avoidance.