ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to determine the utility of a brief screening tool for panic disorder in the primary care setting.MethodsA total of 1476 primary care outpatients in three primary care medical clinics on the West Coast of the United States were studied. Patients completed a brief self-report measure, the five-item Autonomic Nervous System Questionnaire (ANS), while in the waiting room. The presence of DSM-IV panic disorder was subsequently determined in groups of "screen-positive" and "screen-negative" subjects using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. A subset of patients (N = 511) also completed the 21-item Beck Anxiety Inventory. Indices of diagnostic utility were calculated using receiving operating characteristic analyses to guide the selection of optimal cutoff levels.Resultsor=to20, but sensitivity was lower than desirable for a screening instrument (0.67).ConclusionsThe two-question version of the ANS shows promise as a screening instrument for panic disorder in the primary care setting.