title: A breath-holding challenge in panic disorder patients, their healthy first-degree relatives, and normal controls.
abstract: Our aim was to observe the induction of panic attacks (PA) symptoms by a breath-hold test in panic disorder (PD) patients as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders 4th edition (DSM-IV) and their healthy first-degree relatives. We randomly selected 26 PD patients, 28 healthy first-degree relatives of probands with PD and 25 normal volunteers with no family history of PD. They were induced to breath-hold for as long as possible four times with a two-min interval between them. Anxiety scales were applied before and after the test. Using specific PA criteria, 46.1% (n=12) PD patients, 7.1% (n=2) first-degree relatives and 4.0% (n=1) control subjects had a PA after the test (chi(2)=7.82, df=2, P=0.023). There was no heart rate, anxiety levels or breath-hold time differences among the groups. In this breath hold challenge test PD patients were more sensitive to breath-hold than first-degree relatives and normal volunteers.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Panic and Respiration, Institute of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. aenardi@novanet.com.br
authors.forename: Antonio E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Nardi
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nascimento
authors.forename: Alexandre M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Valença
authors.forename: Fabiana L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.forename: Walter A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Zin
authors.forename: Marco A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Mezzasalma
authors.forename: Marcio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Versiani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000379:methods; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012119:Respiration