Panic Disorder Overview - Treatment for Panic Disorder

Written by HealthyPlace.com Staff Writer

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Getting Treatment for Panic Disorder

Panic disorder has been called one of the great impostors among illnesses because it is so easily mistaken for other medical or psychiatric problems, such as heart disease, thyroid problems, respiratory problems, or hypochondriasis. Those afflicted with the condition may trudge from doctor to doctor seeking help, and may even give up the hope of a cure, doubting their sanity. That's when a psychiatrist -- who is a specially trained medical doctor -- can help. Psychiatrists' training equips them to interpret correctly the symptoms of panic disorder, make a diagnosis, and treat the illness.

As with any other psychiatric illness, a psychiatrist will first ensure the patient has had a thorough physical exam. The psychiatrist will also try to piece together a complete knowledge of the patient's background, history of drug use (or abuse), and treatment history to gain the complete understanding needed to begin helping the panic disorder sufferer. The fact that other disorders--such as depression and agoraphobia--can exist along with panic disorder makes this process very important for the treatment program. If the treatment program is to help, it must address all the panic disorder sufferer's problems.

Researchers in government, the universities, and industry are working to expose the roots of the illness and are designing more effective means of diagnosing, treating, and controlling panic disorder. Today, psychiatrists treating panic disorder have a number of medicines and therapies they can use to help their patients. The psychiatrist will first seek to ease panic disorder's symptoms with education about the illness, medications if warranted, and behavioral treatment techniques such as relaxation training. Once the psychiatrist has helped the patient to make the symptoms less threatening, he will then help the patient to work against the agoraphobia, anticipatory anxiety, depression, and other ills these panic symptoms have themselves produced. Psychiatrist and patient will then continue to work together on the ongoing consequences of the illness and any other problems that nay exist side-by-side with (and often hidden by) panic disorder.

The most successful treatment programs combine three main forms of therapy: medication, cognitive and behavioral treatment. A number of medications that have worked well against depression also work against panic disorder, helping front 75 to 90 percent of its sufferers. These medications include tricyclic antidepressants, MAO inhibitors, and other drugs from the benzodiazepine group of minor tranquilizers. Preliminary evidence indicates there are more medications that will prove useful in treating the illness.

The cognitive and behavioral elements of treatment usually begin with education about the illness and encouragement to reenter situations to which the patient has become phobic along the history of the illness. Psychiatrists will then proceed with several forms of psychotherapy that help patients to change how they think (cognitive therapy) and how they act (behavioral therapy). Behavioral therapists are using desensitization techniques in which they teach panic disorder sufferers relaxation exercises and then gradually expose them to situations they have phobically avoided, teaching them to modify their breathing and to "reshape" their fearful thoughts to avoid panic attacks. They have found that, since panic disorder exists both alone and in tandem with depression and agoraphobia, they must modify treatment to fit individual cases. Follow-up treatment can also include in-depth psychodynamic psychotherapy that helps the patient to deal with the long-term consequences of the illness, which may have gone for years untreated.

Effective treatments and ongoing research are bringing new hope for recovery to sufferers of panic disorder. And continuing medical education is helping more and more physicians to recognize the disorder and get patients the help they need. Earlier diagnoses are significantly reducing the complications of untreated panic disorder and, with appropriate psychiatric treatment, nine out of ten sufferers will recover and return to normal life activities.

For comprehensive information on panic disorder and other forms of anxiety, visit the HealthyPlace.com Anxiety-Panic Community.

Produced by the APA Joint Commission on Public Affairs and the Division of Public Affairs. This document contains text of a pamphlet developed for educational purposes and does not necessarily reflect opinion or policy of the American Psychiatric Association.

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