The following symptoms and complaints may indicate panic disorder:
- Repeated sudden onset (within minutes) of anxiety attacks with primarily physical symptoms such as:
- Feeling of suffocation, tightness in the throat, pressure in the head.
- Dry mouth (xerostomia)
- Palpitations (heart stuttering), tachycardia (heartbeat too fast: > 100 beats per minute).
- Blood pressure increase
- Dyspnea (shortness of breath)
- Thoracic pain (pain or pressure in the chest)
- Abdominal pain (pain or pressure in the abdomen).
- Sweating, tremor
- Vertigo (dizziness)
- Paresthesias (sensory deafness) in the hands and feet.
- Nausea / vomiting
- Diarrhea (diarrhea)
- Urination
- In addition, the following psychological complaints occur mainly:
- Loss of control before loss of control
- Fear of dying or going crazy
- Fear of death
- Feeling of strangeness
- Fear new panic attacks
Further notes
- In panic disorder, there are two forms of confrontation in particular:
- Confrontation with the so-called “interoceptive stimuli”, i.e. perception of internal stimuli, meaning processes from the inside of the body (e.g. heart palpitations).
- Confrontation with the so-called “situational stimuli”, i.e., for example, perception of height (acrophobia).
