To investigate a cognitive diathesis-stress model, the present study evaluated the main and interactive effects of anxiety sensitivity (AS) and exposure to aversive conditions (past month) in predicting theoretically relevant panic vulnerability variables in an epidemiologically defined sample from Russia (N = 390). Consistent with expectation, findings suggested that the combination of high le...

AIMS The present study explores anger attacks in depressive and anxiety disorders for their prevalence and some of the clinical and psychosocial correlates. METHODS The sample comprised of patients with ICD-10-diagnosed depressive and anxiety disorders (n=328). All the subjects were given a demographic and clinical profile sheet, the Irritability Depression Anxiety Scale, World Health Organiz...

This review covers the literature since the publication of DSM-IV on the diagnostic criteria for panic attacks (PAs) and panic disorder (PD). Specific recommendations are made based on the evidence available. In particular, slight changes are proposed for the wording of the diagnostic criteria for PAs to ease the differentiation between panic and surrounding anxiety; simplification and clarific...

OBJECTIVE Populations at high risk for panic disorder (PD) probably share with subjects with PD an underlying vulnerability involving features like anxiety sensitivity (AS) and alexithymia. The present study would verify if PD relatives (R) and subjects who have experienced 1 or more panic attacks (PAs) show different levels of AS and alexithymia with respect to healthy controls (HC). METHODS...

Before 1980, most people experiencing common nervous problems and who sought medical help complained of anxiety and were treated for anxiety. Similar experiences increasingly led to complaints of or treatment for panic attacks in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and to complaints of or treatment for mood disorders by the mid-1990s. Today, such patients seem once again increasingly likely to comp...

OBJECTIVE To determine the association between panic attacks and mental disorders among youth in the community. METHOD Data were drawn from the Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders study (n = 1285), a community-based sample of youth aged 9-17. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to determine the association between panic attacks and the range of me...

Studies suggest that perievent panic attacks are predictive of future posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Using a population of New York City residents interviewed after the World Trade Center Disaster, the authors measured event exposure, perievent panic, potential confounding, mediating variables, and PTSD. When they estimated a structural equation model, with other stressor events, psychol...

Findings from epidemiological, pharmacotherapeutical, genetic and neurobiological studies suggest a possible overlap in the neurobiology of generalized social anxiety disorder (gSAD) and panic disorder (PD). Previously we have found a rapid intravenous m-CPP challenge of 0.1 mg/kg to be highly sensitive and selective in the provocation of panic attacks in patients with PD. We therefore directly...

The analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) is becoming widely used in clinical research to provide a window into autonomic control of HR. This technique has been valuable in elucidating the autonomic underpinnings of panic disorder (PD), a condition that is marked by reports of heart palpitations. A body of research has emerged that implicates a relative reduction in HRV and cardiac vagal ton...

Twenty-four females meeting the DSM-III criteria for agoraphobia with panic attacks underwent partner-assisted exposure therapy followed by either Couples Relaxation Training or Couples Communication Skills Training. Posttest results indicated an advantage in favor of communications training. Subjects in this condition reported significantly lower scores on the agoraphobia subscale of the Fear ...