Panic Disorders: A Case Study

A panic disorder is when one person has reoccurring bursts of anxiety and fear resulting in adverse physical symptoms that can last for many minutes (American Psychiatric Association & American Psychiatric Association 2013). These attacks can happen to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. The disorder is closely related to other disorders and often times are paired with other disorders such as agoraphobia (American Psychiatric Association et al. 2013). This disorder is debilitating to the people that it affects but can be treated and lived with. Often time’s individuals with this disorder live a good life but sometimes the individual’s have such intense attacks that they can barely leave the house for fear of having an attack.

Panic Disorder is classified

The woman explained to the doctor what was happening to her. The woman also explained that the attack had come out of nowhere with not explanation as to why the attack was triggered. She explained to the doctor that this was the fourth attack in four weeks and the attacks just keep getting worse. The woman proceeded to tell the doctor that she did not know what to do about her symptoms. After examination, the doctor concluded that she was having a panic attack. The doctor asked the patient how long the attacks had been occurring and the patient replied that the attacks had been happening for years but had disappeared for a while and are now resurfacing. The doctor explained to her what he thought may be happening since the doctor found no other explanation for the symptoms that were occurring. The doctor recommended that she go see a psychiatrist or a psychologist. The doctor also prescribed an anti-anxiety medication that was commonly used to treat panic disorder. The woman was later diagnosed with panic disorder after going to a psychiatrist. She is not being treated for the disorder. (Scheutzow & Wiercisiewski 1999; Comer

The earlier research on panic disorder found that certain antidepressants such as imipramine blocked panic attacks while others such as benzodiazepines reduced the anticipation of anxiety (McNally 1990). Older research has found that panic tends to runs in families by the passing of genetics, though at the time the research was conducted the theorists did not know if it was panic disorder that was passed genetically or just an anxiety trait (McNally 1990). Panic disorder can also be explained by the psychoanalytic theory (Antony, Brown, & Barlow 1992). The psychoanalytic approach explained panic disorder as anxiety neurosis (Antony et al. 1992). The first occurrence of the term panic disorder occurred in the DSM-III (Antony et al.