Panic disorder
A panic disorder is defined by the repeated occurrence of panic attacks. These can occur in the context of other psychiatric disorders or diseases, but can also manifest as a general panic disorder. Panic attacks are characterized by a sudden onset of massive anxiety.
This can increase even further to an individual peak. The most common symptoms that occur during a panic attack are, with decreasing probability, the following: Tachycardia, hot flushes, oppressive feeling, trembling, dizziness and sudden sweating. The symptoms often occur in combination.
Only about half of all panic attacks are accompanied by these symptoms: Breathlessness, fear of death (fear of dying), abdominal pain, feeling faint (“turning black before eyes”) and discomfort such as tingling. Since the symptoms are very dramatic when viewed from the outside, an emergency doctor is called in many cases. This is the right decision, even if it is often unnecessary.
As a layman (and also partly as an expert) one cannot initially tell the difference between a panic attack and actual physical symptoms. The duration of a panic attack usually ranges from 10 minutes to half an hour. However, how long the condition actually lasts individually can vary from patient to patient.
After the horror of a panic attack has been experienced for the first time, the affected persons usually have additional fear of having to experience another attack. This fear of anxiety is called phobophobia. Here, too, there is the danger of social isolation in order to avoid confrontation with the fear-triggering stimulus at all costs.
The panic disorder plays an important role in relation to heart disease. Both patients and relatives of patients (mainly men) are afraid of cardiac incidents. In the case of a panic attack, the subjective (perceived by the patient) signs begin to appear, but from a medical point of view there are no cardiac symptoms.
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