Panic Disorder

1. Panic Disorder Lazaro Brito Tierney Pride Denis Zimero Period 2 IB Psychology

2. Symptoms • Sudden and repeated attacks of fear • A feeling of being out of control during a panic attack • An intense worry about when the next attack will happen • A fear or avoidance of places where panic attacks have occurred in the past • Physical symptoms during an attack, such as a pounding or racing heart, sweating, breathing problems, weakness or dizziness, feeling hot or a cold chill, tingly or numb hands, chest pain, or stomach pain.

3. Prevalence • Panic disorder affects about 6 million American adults and is twice as common in women as men. • Panic attacks often begin in late adolescence or early adulthood, but not everyone who experiences panic attacks will develop panic disorder. • Many people have just one attack and never have another. The tendency to develop panic attacks appears to be inherited.

4. Diagnosis • Panic attacks can occur at any time, even during sleep. An attack usually peaks within 10 minutes, but some symptoms may last much longer. • People who have full-blown, repeated panic attacks can become very disabled by their condition and should seek treatment before they start to avoid places or situations where panic attacks have occurred. • Panic disorder is often accompanied by other serious problems, such as depression, drug abuse, or alcoholism. These conditions need to be treated separately.

5. Cultural Factors • Panic is universal and is processed the same from culture to culture as the mind interprets the body's physiological changes as something bad is happening or is going to happen in the near future. • However, panic is diagnosed differently from culture to culture. • Example, according to a study by Rachman and De Dilva, African Americans often report more physical sensations during paniic attacks such as numbness.Chinese people associate dizziness as a prominent feature in their diagnosis of P.D. • These variety of symptoms make it difficult to properly diagnosis some people due to their cultural background leading psychologist/psychiatrist to misdiagnose patients.

6. Gender Variations • Approximately 3 percent of the population will experience signs of P.D. • Twice as many women are diagnosed with P.D. than men. 5-7 % of women 2-3.5 % of men • Stein et. al in 1996 showed results that 60 % of women who are diagnosed with Panic disorder have experienced sexual abuse and 15 % of men diagnosed have a history of physical abuse. • These results could be skewed due to such thing as gender roles and expectations. Women are expected to report symptoms more while men are stigmatized for reporting this "weakness".

7. Inherited Factors Environmental Factors Stress PTSD Psychiatric Outcome Prenatal Factors YOU Neonatal Factors Inherited Factors Postnatal Factors

8. TREATMENT • Cognitive-behavioral therapy is used as a treatment method. • Therapists seek out panic accompanying thoughts and feelings to minimize attacks by changing how the patient responds to them. This allows the patient to have some sense of control over the attack. • Systematic training in relaxation techniques allow ability to reduce presence of anxiety. (i.e breathing exercises). • Psychiatric Medication is also used as a treatment method. • Most drugs prescribed are either anti-anxiety or antidepressant

9. Etiology and Therapeutic Approaches • Interoceptive exposure- therapist does individual assessment of internal sensations associated with panic to teach patients how to cope with the sensations. • In vivo exposure- therapist learns whether the patient is avoiding social places such as malls and stores and places them in situations where they have to face that fear.

10. ARITCLES • http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/panic-disorder/index.shtml • http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/mental-health-panic-disorder • Rachman, S., De Silva, P. (2003). Panic Disorder (2nd ed) The Facts. Oxford University Press • Stein et al. 1996. www.Psychologytoday.psychtest.com/articles/mentalhealth/etiology.htm • https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=Dr4ZU6enCMWe0QGzyICgAw&url=http://graulab.tamu.edu/j-grau/Psyc606/Papers/BoutonPsycRev01.pdf&cd=13&ved=0CEYQFjAM&usg=AFQjCNGxB91gDVgAaHxGx1rTSPGp3hfNvw • http://www.apa.org/pubs/videos/4310781.aspx