Non-fearful vs. fearful panic attacks: a general population study from the National Comorbidity Survey.
BACKGROUND
Non-fearful panic attacks constitute a subgroup of panic attacks without the experience of subjective fear. However, previous studies were mostly carried out under medical settings and with small samples. The present study aims to clarify and expand the previous findings including the prevalence and characteristics of non-fearful panic attacks by using the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS) database.


METHODS
From the 8098 original respondents in the NCS, subjects who met the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria for a lifetime panic attack were selected. Of these, individuals with non-fearful panic attacks were identified and comparisons with subjects with fearful panic attacks were conducted.


RESULTS
30% of panic attacks occur without fears of dying or going crazy. Although these non-fearful panic attacks do not differ from their fearful counterparts in terms of age, age of onset or frequency of attacks, they are less often associated with some symptoms including shortness of breath, trembling, smothering and depersonalization, lead less often to anticipatory anxiety, and lead to less treatment with medication. Although they lead equally to panic disorder diagnosis and cause as much functional impairment, the non-fearful ones are less often associated with diagnoses of agoraphobia, as well as many other Axis I disorders such as major depressive disorder, simple phobia and substance-related disorders.


CONCLUSIONS
Recall bias and response bias may have distorted estimated relationships.


CONCLUSIONS
Although milder in terms of symptomatology and some comorbidity, clinicians need to pay appropriate attention to non-fearful subtypes of panic attacks which appear to be equally dysfunctional.
Department of Psychiatry and Cognitive-Behavioral Medicine, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, Japan. wenzi@tokaigakuin-u.ac.jp
Junwen
J
Chen
Masao
M
Tsuchiya
Norito
N
Kawakami
Toshi A
TA
Furukawa
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D000379:Agoraphobia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D019992:Databases as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003861:Depersonalization / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology