Panic Disorder Case Study Examples

My case study focuses on Anxiety Disorder, specifically Panic Disorder. In this case, my patient Joe experienced his first panic attack while shopping at his local supermarket. He experienced rising heart rate, dizziness, and perfuse sweating, all symptoms of a panic attack. Rushing out of the market because he was fearful of passing out, Joe immediately felt better, however, he became even more anxious when he thought about having another panic attack. Associating supermarkets with his experience, he refused to shop in crowded markets and opted for a quiet shop close to home instead. A few weeks later, while driving home from work, Joe felt another panic attack coming on. Worried he might lose control, he pulled off the road and felt better

Although this made him nervous at first, Joe listed all these activities, and was able to successfully list them in order of how anxious each made him feel. We made predictions about what might happen when he did the things on the list and how he would manage each possibility. He eased into these activities gradually and recorded his progress. His confident increased as he worked through the list and he was progressively able to manage his anxiety and panic as his apprehension reduced. When the eight sessions came to a conclusion, Joe had achieved all of his

Treatment routes differ depending on many variables including the client, the severity of their experiences and their history with medication. However, the most common treatment routes include Psychotherapy, Medication, and a combination of the both. If the therapist decides to go the route of just Psychotherapy, the client and the therapist will typically agree on a set number of meetings and will make a plan for what they hope to accomplish from their sessions. This plan will usually include five steps to overcoming Panic Disorder. These include the Learning, Monitoring, Breathing, Rethinking, and Exposing steps. In the learning step, the person suffering learns about Panic Disorder, how to identify the symptoms, and the treatment plan. In the monitoring stage, the patient will record their experiences and any occurrences that might cause elevated anxiety. In the third phase “Breathing,” the patient will learn relaxation techniques to decrease the symptoms of Panic Disorder. The fourth phase, called “Rethinking” allows the patient to look at the symptoms they experience from a more optimistic perspective and includes discussing the possible outcomes of certain events. In the final stage, the patient exposes themselves to activities that previously made them anxious or were associated with panic attacks. While this has been proven to be a very effective treatment, medication is sometimes administered instead of,