Did you know that nearly 1 out of 75 people may suffer from panic disorder? But before you carry the weight of similar issues on our shoulders, let this article brief you about this thing called panic disorder.

Panic disorder is an illness that is characterized by continuous scenes of intense, gripping scare associated with heart palpitations, nausea and painful sensations. If a person experiences a minimum of two unanticipated future attacks and alarming worries with regards to having behavioral changes to prevent future attacks. The disorder is caused by mental stress, or worries unresolved issues, psychological vulnerabilities or even a combination of all these three. Research says nearly 10 percent of people that are healthy suffer an isolated panic illness attack each year.

A panic attack usually lasts for a maximum of 10 minutes. The usual panic attacks frequency suggests four attacks occur in four weeks, subsequently followed by one month of frightful expected attacks. Panic disorder normally occurs in the late adolescent period or the early period of adulthood.

Approximately 50% to 60% of people experiencing panic disorder experiences primary depressive disorders that was reported by the United States Surgeon Generals Report last 1999. About 2.4 million or roughly 1.7% of adults in the 18-54 age range suffers from panic disorder annually and 1 out of 3 people experiencing panic disorder evolve to having agoraphobia. An average of 70% of the disorder patients suffer from extra psychiatric and psychological condition. Moreover, approximately 40% of panic disorder patients experience depression as well.

Women are more likely to suffer from panic disorder than men and according to the survey conducted by the National institutes of Mental Health, about 1 in 75 people may suffer from panic disorder and only about 1 in 4 people with the illness gain medical treatment as stated by the National Institutes of Mental Health.

One million Americans suffer from the symptoms of panic disorder and approximately 3 million Americans are expected to experience panic disorder.

Here are some profile points of panic disorder patients:

* Averaging 60% at ages 18 to 34 years old
* The onset of the illness usually at age 24
* The number ration of male patients to female patients is 28 and 72 respectively.
* The number percentage of married patients is 51
* Average percentage of divorced patients is 24
* Approximately 50% of panic disorder patients are no longer able to drive over a 3-mile distance from their homes.
* About 30% of the patients are alcoholics, 17% are drug addicts, 42% take tranquilizers, 83% have declined work quality performance, 67% lost their jobs and 43% are no longer able to work even once for a month.
* Twenty percent (20%) are financially dependent on disability or welfare programs.


The most common used treatment for panic disorder is the drug or behavioral therapy. A combination of the two usually leads to best results. A significant 70% to 90% of panic disorder patients have been treated successfully. The frequently used behavioral treatment technique is the desentization or simply a gradual exposure to several panic situations. Appreciable signs of positive effects of behavioral treatment can be observable within three to six weeks.

About 35% of the patients have stopped drug treatments due to some side effects caused by a quick-working drug known as benzodiazepines. This drug is believed to reduce the symptoms of the illness. However, the drug is proven to have adverse affects. Statistics reports that averages of 28% of panic disorder patients are carried to emergency rooms within a period of six months of using the drug.

If you think you or your loved on is suffering from panic disorder, you should visit your psychiatrist immediately to help you with this problem.

Popularity: 3%