About 20 years ago, Deakin and Graeff proposed that whereas generalized anxiety disorder is produced by the overactivity of 5-HT excitatory projections from dorsal raphe nucleus to the areas of prefrontal cortex and amygdala which process distal threat, panic attacks are a dysfunction of 5-HT inhibitory projections from dorsal raphe nucleus to the dorsal periaqueductal gray matter, thereby rele...

The validity of distinguishing between the diagnoses of panic disorder and agoraphobia with panic attacks was examined in a study of 20 patients with each disorder. Comparison of demographic, psychometric, and clinical features of the two groups revealed few differences. Agoraphobics scored higher on ratings of interpersonal sensitivity, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and alcohol use. Panic...

BACKGROUND Sarcoidosis is a systemic disease of unknown etiology, in which granulomas develop in various organs, including the skin, lungs, eyes, or heart. It has been reported that patients with sarcoidosis are more likely to develop panic disorder than members of the general population. However, there are many unknown factors concerning the causal relationship between these conditions. CASE...

Background: Diastolic heart dysfunction may explain the enigmatic pathophysiology of panic attacks and re la ted d i so rde rs l i ke c laus t rophob ia , subjective/objective intolerance of heated enclosed environments and caffeine intolerance/allergy that can be sometimes indistinguishable from panic attacks symptomatically. Objectives: To investigate whether clinical history of panic attacks...

OBJECTIVE To describe the unique case of a patient with panic attacks and bilateral selective amygdala lesions due to Urbach-Wiethe disease. DESIGN Case report. SETTING Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, Medical University of Vienna. Patient A 38-year-old man with Urbach-Wiethe disease developed spontaneous panic attacks and depressive mood, which ceased after antidepressive treatment. INTERVENTIO...

BACKGROUND The present investigation evaluated lifetime associations between cannabis use, abuse, and dependence and panic attacks after controlling for alcohol abuse, polysubstance use, and demographic variables. METHODS Data for this study were obtained as part of a large statewide survey, the Colorado Social Health Survey (CSHS). Participants were contacted using randomly sampled household...

Panic disorder involves both recurrent unexpected panic attacks and persistent concern about having additional attacks. Electrical stimulation of the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) is an animal model of both panic attack and panic disorder, whereas contextual fear conditioning represents a model of anticipatory anxiety. Previous research indicated that anxiety has an inhibitory effect on pan...

PANIC DISORDER IS THE MOST COMMON TYPE OF ANXIETY DISORDER, AND ITS MOST COMMON EXPRESSION IS PANIC ATTACKS CHARACTERIZED WITH SUDDEN ATTACKS OF ANXIETY WITH NUMEROUS SYMPTOMS, INCLUDING PALPITATIONS, TACHYCARDIA, TACHYPNEA, NAUSEA, AND VERTIGO: ie, cardiovascular, gastroenterologic, respiratory, and neuro-otologic symptoms. In clinical practice, panic disorder manifests with isolated gastroent...