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Panic Disorder |
Overcoming Anxiety (Home) > Panic Disorder Panic Disorder: Anxiety, Treatment, Symptom and CausesPanic disorder is a pathological condition characterized by repeated panic attacks, combined with a series of long-lasting symptoms and attitudes that are present between the attacks. The DSM-IV time criterion requires an abrupt onset to panic attacks with a time to peak intensity of less than 10 minutes. Scupi et al. found that prolonged onset panickers do not differ significantly from rapid onset panickers on any clinical features. The authors therefore suggest evaluating the reliability, validity and clinical relevance of the current DSM-IV time criterion in future studies. Since, as explained above, panic attacks may be observed during the course of other psychiatric conditions as well as in healthy people, present classification criteria require either a minimum number of attacks or that the presence of unexpected panic attacks is followed by persistent concern about having another panic attack, worry about the possible implications or consequences of the panic attacks, or a significant behavioural change (usually avoidance or restrictive behavior). Panic disorder is characterized by recurrent panic attacks with a tendency to have a chronic course; associated common features are agoraphobia, hypochondriasis, anticipatory anxiety, demoralisation. Patients with PD have also been reported to have an increased risk of other psychiatric conditions (comorbidity) as well as of medical illnesses.
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