Panic Disorder is a psychiatric condition characterized by recurring panic attacks in combination with significant behavioral change or at least a month of ongoing worry about the implications or concern about having other attacks.

Symptoms

Panic disorder sufferers usually have a series of intense episodes of extreme anxiety, known as panic attacks. These attacks are typically short lived. However, attacks can wax and wane for a period of hours (one panic attack rolling into another). They may vary in intensity and specific symptoms of panic over the duration (i.e. rapid heartbeat, perspiration, dizziness, dyspnea, trembling, psychological experience of uncontrollable fear, etc.). Some individuals deal with these events on a regular basis—sometimes daily or weekly. The outward symptoms of a panic attack often cause negative social experiences (i.e. embarrassment, social stigma, social isolation, etc.). As a result, as many as 36% of all individuals with panic disorder also have agoraphobia.

Panic Disorder is a serious health problem but can be successfully treated. It is estimated that 1.7 percent of the adult American population alone has Panic Disorder. It typically strikes in early adulthood; roughly half of all people who have panic disorder develop the condition before age 24, especially if the person has been subjected to a traumatic experience. However, some sources say that the majority of young people affected for the first time are between the ages of 25 and 30. Women are twice as likely as men to develop panic disorder.

Panic Disorder can continue for months or even years, depending on how and when treatment is sought. If left untreated, it may worsen to the point where the person's life is seriously affected by panic attacks and by attempts to avoid or conceal the condition. In fact, many people have had problems with friends and family or employment while struggling to cope with Panic Disorder. In some individuals symptoms may occur frequently for a period of months or years, then many years may pass symptom free. In others, the symptoms persist at the same level indefinitely.

Causes

Panic disorder has been found to run in families, and this may mean that inheritance plays a strong role in determining who will get it. It has also been found to exist as a co-morbid condition with many hereditary disorders, such as bipolar disorder, and alcoholism. However, many people who have no family history of the disorder develop it.

Other biological factors, stressful life events, life transitions, environment, and thinking in a way that exaggerates relatively normal bodily reactions are also believed to play a role in the onset of panic disorder. Often the first attacks are triggered by physical illnesses, major stress, or certain medications. People who tend to take on excessive responsibilities may develop a tendency to suffer panic attacks. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients also show a much higher rate of panic disorder than the general population. The exact causes of panic disorder are unknown at this point.

Studies have focused on pinpointing the specific brain areas involved in anxiety disorders such as panic disorder. Fear, an emotion that evolved to deal with danger, causes an automatic, rapid protective response that occurs without the need for conscious thought. This is termed the fight or flight response. It has been found that the body's fear response is coordinated by a small but complicated structure deep inside the brain called the amygdala. Eating disorders have also been linked to panic attacks in several people. Due to the nature of the fight or flight response many cases of panic disorder may be linked with the limbic system and be initiated by those biological factors that could be biological, reinterpreted emotionally as a threat to survival, such as hypoxia (lack of oxygen). A sleep-related panic disorder could be most easily distinguished from a night terror by the ability (usually instantaneous) of the panic disorder sufferer to regain full consciousness, unlike the night terror sufferer.

Stimulants are a rather common cause for panic attacks. An excess of common stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine often can induce panic attacks in less experienced users. Chemicals, including carbon monoxide, in tobacco smoke can also trigger panic attacks in certain people.