Phenomenology of panic attacks: a descriptive study of panic disorder patients' self-reports.
The phenomenology of panic disorder and panic attacks was systematically assessed in 46 consecutive patients. The results suggest that DSM-III criteria include several symptoms that are not frequently present during a panic attack and that DSM-III's characterization of a panic attack is imprecise and misleading. Panic attacks were found to vary in intensity, frequency, spontaneity, and associated symptoms. A panic attack typically presents as a unified symptom complex of psychic anxiety and multiple somatic symptoms in multiple body systems. It occurs in a crescendolike pattern, is self-limited, and often leaves the subject weak or shaken. The temporal course as much as the symptomatic presentation defines a panic attack.
Aronson
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Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, State University of New York at Stony Brook 11794-8101.
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D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008370:Manuals as Topic / Q000592:standards; D010200:Panic; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012737:Sex Factors; D009626:Terminology as Topic