An analysis of the panic disorder and symptoms with potential treatment

Some people also suffer from tunnel visionmostly due to blood flow leaving the head to more critical parts of the body in defense. These feelings may provoke a strong urge to escape or flee the place where the attack began a consequence of the " fight-or-flight response ", in which the hormone causing this response is released in significant amounts. This response floods the body with hormonesparticularly epinephrine adrenalinewhich aid it in defending against harm.

Tobias Rowland Anxiety disorders are frequently comorbid with depression, but there is also evidence of a strong association with bipolar disorder. Indeed, symptoms of anxiety are often present before the onset of bipolar disorder Faedda et al. This particular comorbidity presents a challenge for diagnosis and treatment, as the first-line medications for anxiety disorders are often SSRIs, which may induce mood elevation and switching to mania in those with bipolar disorder.

Additionally, comorbidity of anxiety disorders leads to worse outcomes and lower quality of life in those with bipolar disorder Das, However, research into comorbidity with specific anxiety disorders are lacking.

A recent paper by Preti et al aimed to systematically review the literature for papers reporting on comorbid panic disorder in bipolar disorder and performed meta-analyses for prevalence of the comorbidity. Additionally, the reference lists of relevant books and reviews were scanned for additional papers.

The inclusion criteria were studies reporting on patients with a confirmed diagnosis of bipolar disorder and panic disorder, and studies published in the English language.

Causes & Diagnosis

Both fixed and random effects models were reported for the meta-analyses and the study used appropriate statistical tests to identify outliers. Anxiety disorders are often comorbid with bipolar disorder, but the prevalence of specific disorders such as panic disorder are not known.

Results A total of 37 studies met inclusion criteria for the review: Point prevalence 15 studies were included in the meta-analysis for the point prevalence of panic disorder in bipolar disorder.

The point prevalence estimate was One likely outlier was identified with a particularly high prevalence of panic disorder, and after its exclusion the point prevalence was slightly reduced to Lifetime prevalence 25 studies were included in the meta-analysis of longitudinal data on the lifetime prevalence of panic disorder in those with bipolar disorder.

The estimated lifetime prevalence was One potential outlier was identified and following the removal of that study the prevalence was slightly reduced to Prevalence directly compared with other diagnoses Two studies directly compared point prevalence of panic disorder in bipolar disorder with panic disorder in major depressive disorder MDDand six studies compared lifetime prevalence.

Subgroup analysis and meta-regression Subgroup analysis of those with bipolar disorder type 1 and type 2 did not reveal any differences in point or lifetime prevalence estimates and did not reduce the heterogeneity.

Meta-regression analysis showed that neither age, gender or diagnostic procedure affected either the point or lifetime prevalence estimates. Conclusions The authors conclude that the prevalence of comorbid panic disorder in patients with bipolar disorder is greater than the prevalence of panic disorder in the general population, although the reported prevalence estimates varied substantially across studies.

The similarity in the point prevalence and lifetime prevalence may suggest that panic disorder runs a more chronic course when comorbid with bipolar disorder.

Strengths and limitations The study is a good quality systematic review of comorbid panic disorder in bipolar disorder. The authors used broad inclusion criteria and few exclusion criteria, which allowed a wide range of relevant papers to be identified. Nonetheless, there are limitations that need to be considered when interpreting the results: As the authors discuss, a large proportion of the included studies were not identified using their search strategy, but from the scanning of reference lists of relevant books and reviews, and therefore there may be additional studies that were not found.

A further limitation is the high heterogeneity of the meta-analyses, which was not related to differences between bipolar types 1 and 2. The reason for such variability in the primary studies is not clear, and may be related to methodology, geographical location or diagnostic instrument.

A strength of this study is the use of statistical techniques to identify outliers, but unfortunately excluding outliers did not reduce the heterogeneity.

Such variability means it is not clear what the correct estimate for the prevalence of comorbid panic disorder is, and whether the pooled prevalence calculated here is applicable to a specific local population.

An Analysis of Treatment For Panic Disorder With Agoraphobia Sawyer Borror Kansas State University Usually the public views those with the condition of Agoraphobia as people whom will not leave their homes due to an unrealistic fear. An Analysis of the Panic Disorder and Symptoms With Potential Treatment PAGES 2. WORDS 1, View Full Essay. More essays like this: panic disorder definition, panic disored treatment, panic disorder symptoms. Not sure what I'd do without @Kibin - Alfredo Alvarez, student @ Miami University. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by multiple and/or nonspecific worries. GAD often starts early in life, and people with this diagnosis will often describe being anxious, or being a "worrier," for most of their life.

Additionally, very few of the identified studies directly compared prevalence of panic disorder in bipolar disorder to panic disorder in healthy controls, and therefore it is difficult to compare the prevalence estimates calculated in this meta-analysis with estimates of panic disorder prevalence in the general population.

The wide variability of prevalence estimates across different studies makes it difficult to know whether the overall prevalence applies to a specific population. Implications for practice This study provided a comprehensive review of the comorbidity of panic disorder in those with bipolar disorder, finding a high lifetime and point prevalence, and comparable rates of comorbidity to MDD.

The similarity of lifetime and point prevalence of panic disorder may suggest it runs more chronic rather than episodic course in those with bipolar disorder.

The evidence for treatment of panic disorder in those with bipolar disorder is severely lacking and is a key area for future research. As the presence of comorbid anxiety disorders are associated with poorer outcomes in bipolar disorder, more effective treatment for panic disorder could be one way of improving prognosis in this patient group.

Therefore, clinicians should be vigilant for symptoms of panic disorder in those with bipolar disorder. Clinicians should be vigilant for symptoms of panic disorder in those with bipolar disorder, although more research is needed to determine the most effective treatment for panic disorder when comorbid with bipolar disorder.People with panic disorder may have brains that are especially sensitive in responding to fear.

Turning to drugs or alcohol to try to deal with panic disorder in turn can make the symptoms worse. In addition to looking for symptoms of repeated panic attacks by asking detailed questions about the sufferer's history and conducting a mental-status examination, mental-health professionals will explore the possibility that the individual's symptoms are caused by another emotional illness instead of, or in addition to the diagnosis of panic disorder.

Industry Insights. The global anxiety disorders and depression treatment market size was valued at USD billion in and is anticipated to show steady growth due to the increasing prevalence of anxiety disorder and depression worldwide. Panic attacks can occur due to number of disorders including panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, drug use disorder, depression, and medical problems.

[2] [4] They can either be triggered or occur unexpectedly. [2]. Symptoms of panic disorder often begin to appear in teens and young adults under the age of If you have had four or more panic attacks, or you live in fear of having another panic attack after.

Panic attacks (PAs) are often associated with anxiety disorders other than panic disorder (PD) and are particularly prevalent in social anxiety disorder (SAD; Kessler et al., ).

Whereas PD is characterized by recurrent, unexpected PAs (American Psychiatric Association [APA], ), PAs in SAD are triggered by feared social situations and often referred to as situational (Jack, Heimberg, & Mennin, ).