Searching the American Journal of Psychiatry website results in more than twenty-five thousand articles that speak to panic disorder and panic attacks. help.~The prevalence of the disorder and how widely it is studied is solidified by the number of people seeking panic attack relief.~That indicates that there is a high prevalence of this disorder, and says even more about how common it is and the number of people seeking help for panic attacks.~That statistic would suggest quite a bit about how widely the disorder is studied and the number of people seeking panic attacks help.} There is a Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS) that was developed in 1997 by M. Katherine Shear, M.D., of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which can be administered by a clinician in about five to ten minutes. The scale measures seven different factors: panic frequency; distress during panic; panic-focused anticipatory anxiety; phobic avoidance of situations; phobic avoidance of physical sensations; impairment in work functioning; and impairment in social functioning, and in the medical community, the PDSS is widely used as the first step to determine how to stop panic attacks for individual patients.
One or more of these factors are sure to be recognized by people who suffer from panic attacks as things that negatively disrupt their lives. The constant fear of suffering another attack, and the symptoms of panic attacks themselves, are not going to be affected by simply being evaluated by the PDSS. Here we will take a look at using psychiatric and psychological treatment in order to stop panic attacks.
Understanding What Panic Attacks Are
What are panic attacks? What causes them? Why do medical professionals believe they occur? The core of panic disorder, a panic attack is a terrifying experience. Each of the following symptoms can be experienced by a person in the throes of a panic attack: choking or smothering sensations; fear of losing control, dying, or “going crazy”; feeling unsteady; feelings of nearly paralyzing terror; nausea or stomach pains; numbness or tingling in fingers or toes; shortness of breath; and sweating. It is easy, then, to see why many people present themselves to the emergency department believing they are suffering a heart attack, completely unaware that they are actually experiencing a panic attack.
Usually a person will have their first panic attack when they are between the ages of 25 and 30. It is not unusual for the first attack to be mistaken for something else, even though it may have been triggered by something life-altering such as the death of a loved one, divorce, the birth of a child, or even an upcoming wedding. If a person has a panic attack and does not immediately correlate it to the trigger that caused it, it can be hard to determine what started the attacks, and can also delay treatment.
There are times when a person believes they can pinpoint the triggers that cause their attacks, and this can lead to that person starting to avoid places and things, which can lead to them having agoraphobia, or other types of phobias. If the person does not seek treatment, they run the risk of this becoming a slippery slope, a cycle that just gets worse and worse. The good news is that once panic disorder has been identified, it’s treatable, and around 90% of those who suffer from it go on to live healthy, attack-free lives.
Medical Treatment Options
Psychotherapy is generally the first option and it can come in a couple of different forms — Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Exposure Therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy will usually start with the therapist providing the patient with education about his or her disorder, and instructing the patient to log their episodes of attacks so that the triggers of the attacks can be determined. Breathing techniques are then learned so that the patient can effectively control the attack while it is occurring. The basis of this type of therapy is that the patient can control their own thoughts, rather than allowing any outside influences to control them, and by so doing, can control the awful feelings that he or she has during an attack. help.~In the medical community, this type of therapy is thought to be the quickest way to get panic attacks help.~This therapy is regarded as the quickest way to get help for panic attacks by the medical community.~The quickest way to get help is how the medical community regards this type of therapy.}
Exposure Therapy is a form of CBT that exposes the patient to the triggers that cause their attacks. Such triggers can be traumatic experiences that the patient has lived through, different situations, or memories and thoughts that sparks their attack. To start with in this form of therapy, the patient and the therapist together attempt to determine what those triggers are. This can be the hardest part of the job. Once the trigger (or triggers) has been determined, the therapist then introduces the patient to that situation, thought or memory in small doses; forcing them to face up to the very thing that causes them to have panic attacks. Overcoming the fear is achieved by the patient facing the fear straight out.
Medications as Therapy
In addition to psychotherapy, many times certain drugs are prescribed to help the symptoms and occurrence of panic attacks. The four main categories of drugs used for this purpose are: Tricyclic Antidepressants; Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs); Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs); and Benzodiazepines.
The first category are Tricyclic Antidepressants, and they boast a whopping twenty-something side effects, ranging from the mild (dry mouth) to the severe (irregular heartbeat and muscle breakdown. Because of their toxicity, Tricyclic Antidepressants are in the process of being replaced by SSRIs, described below.
To explain it plainly, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors are drugs that increase the level of serotonin in the body. Serotonin is an organic compound; a neurotransmitter that regulates mood and these drugs boast a whopping twenty-two side effects which can include anything from headaches to liver or renal impairment, with the most widely noted being sexual side-effects including erectile dysfunction and decreased libido.
Prescribed chiefly for smoking cessation and as antidepressants are Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors. These are seriously strong drugs and usually not used unless really indicated because of the way that they interact with many foods and other drugs (sometimes causing death).
Amnesia, hostility, irritability and disturbing dreams are just a few of the side-effects of Benzodiazepines , which the Drug Enforcement Agency has classified as depressants, and which can act, in high doses, as hypnotics. These drugs have been shown to control panic attacks, but it’s important to remember what the long-term effects can be.
help.~Many people have found medications to be very effective in their efforts seek panic attacks help, despite the scary side-effects.~Despite the scary side-effects of drugs, there are a whole host of individuals who have found them to be especially effective in their quest for help.~Yes, these are some pretty scary facts, but remember, too, that folks all over the world have found them to be invaluable in their efforts to get help.} It is critical that you do your homework before you begin any form of therapy, and do not hesitate to discuss your concerns about drug therapy with your doctor before he or she hands you a prescription.
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