Panic attack

Introduction: Panic attack

A panic attack is a sudden episode of unreasoning fear or panic. Many attacks cause such severe physical symptoms that people go to the emergency room thinking that they are dying or having a heart attack. A single panic attack does not necessarily warrant the diagnosis of panic disorder. Panic attacks can also occur in other anxiety disorders such as phobias, in which case the diagnosis is probably not panic disorder.

A panic attack feels very severe with both physical and mental symptoms. Thought descriptions include feeling you're "losing control", "going crazy", "losing my mind", or "going to die". Physical symptoms include chest pain, sweating, breathlessness, faintness/dizziness and various other symptoms. Despite its severity, you cannot die, lose control or go crazy from a panic attack (unless you already have some other underlying disorder or medical condition).

Symptoms of Panic attack

• Inexplicable fear symptoms:
  • Panic
  • Intense fear
  • Terror
• General descriptions of how a panic attack feels (or common thoughts during a panic attack):

See full list of 58 symptoms of Panic attack

Home Diagnostic Testing

Home medical testing related to Panic attack:

• Mental Health: Home Testing:
  • Home Emotional Stress Tests

Medical Textbooks Online about Panic attack

Book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

Wrongly Diagnosed with Panic attack?

• Misdiagnosis of Panic attack
• Failure to diagnose Panic attack
• Underlying causes of Panic attack (possibly wrongly diagnosed)
• Failure to diagnose Panic attack

Misdiagnosis and Panic attack

Common asymptomatic heart disorder can cause anxiety-like conditions: Anxiety symptoms may be due to heart disorder - There is a reasonably common heart disorder called Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP), that often remains...read more »

Rare cancer hidden cause of panic symptoms: The rare cancer pheochromocytoma, an adrenal tumor, can initially have symptoms similar to panic disorder. Its symptoms may include anxiety, panic,...read more »

Thyroid disorder misdiagnosed as anxiety disorder: The book "A Dose of Sanity" reports on a case where as woman was diagnosed with panic disorder, and had been taking a variety of anti-anxiety...read more »

Undiagnosed stroke leads to misdiagnosed aphasia: BBC News UK reported on a man who had been institutionalized and treated for mental illness because he...read more »

Heart attack can be over-diagnosed: Although heart attack is often undiagnosed, leading to fatality, it can also be over-diagnosed. People become concerned that a...read more »

Dementia may be a drug interaction: A common scenario in aged care is for a patient to show mental decline to dementia. Whereas this can, of course, occur due to various medical conditions, such as a stroke or ...read more »

ADHD under-diagnosed in adults: Although the over-diagnoses of ADHD in children is a well-known controversy, the reverse side related to adults. Some adults can remain undiagnosed, and indeed the condition has usually been overlooked...read more »

Bipolar disorder misdiagosed as various conditions by primary physicians: Bipolar disorder (manic-depressive disorder) often fails to be diagnosed correctly by primary care physicians. Many patients with bipolar seek...read more »

Eating disorders under-diagnosed in men: The typical patient with an eating disorder is female. The result is that men with eating disorders often fail to be diagnosed or have a delayed diagnosis....read more »

Depression undiagnosed in teenagers: Serious bouts of depression can be undiagnosed in teenagers. The "normal" moodiness of teenagers can cause severe medical depression to be overlooked. See misdiagnosis of...read more »

Undiagnosed anxiety disorders related to depression: Patients with depression (see symptoms of depression) may also have undiagnosed anxiety disorders (see...read more »

Read more about Misdiagnosis and Panic attack

Causes of Panic attack

• Panic disorder
  • Panic disorder with agoraphobia (type of Panic disorder)
  • Panic disorder without agoraphobia (type of Panic disorder)
• Substance-induced anxiety disorder (type of Anxiety Disorders)
• Anxiety disorders - certain other types of anxiety disorders can lead to panic attacks:

See full list of 13 causes of Panic attack

More information about causes of Panic attack:

• Triggers for Panic attack
• Medications, drugs, or substances causing Panic attack (12 listings)
• Underlying causes of Panic attack
• Panic attack as a complication caused by other conditions
• Panic attack as a symptom
• Medical news summaries relating to Causes of Panic attack
• Cause statistics for Panic attack

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Patient Surveys for Panic attack

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Reseach about Panic attack

Visit our research pages for current research about Panic attack treatments.

Statistics for Panic attack

• Medical statistics for Panic attack
• Prevalence and incidence statistics for Panic attack
• Death and Mortality statistics for Panic attack
• Society statistics for Panic attack
• Symptom statistics for Panic attack
• Misdiagnosis statistics for Panic attack

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Definitions of Panic attack:

Specific psychological phenomenon characterized by sudden onset of anxiety (often unrelated to objective events), accompanied by autonomic symptoms such as tachycardia, paresthesia, flushing, and sweating. - (Source - Diseases Database)

A sudden attack of fear - (Source - WordNet 2.1)