Beh_225

Anxiety is a disorder that affects many people in different ways. Anxiety is characterized as an emotional state that is accompanied by subjective behavioral and physical features. Subjective features included dread, worry, nervousness, tenseness, and fear of losing control. Physical features of anxiety reflect arousal and are identified by sweating, trembling, pounding or racing heart, elevated blood pressure, and faintness. There are five major classifications of anxiety disorders one of which is panic disorders. Panic disorder is the recurrent experience of attacks of extreme anxiety. It affects five percent of people and is often a disabling condition. People with panic disorder usually have panic attacks major symptom. These attacks are sudden and can be overwhelming experiences of terror or fear without reason. People that have panic attacks suffer symptoms such as the feeling of doom, chest pain, sweating, and the fear of losing control or dying. Panic attacks can occur several times a week are very unpredictable and can with normal activities and work. Although panic attacks last only a few minutes they are powerful enough to cause great fear. People associate panic attacks with certain events or with certain places, this can cause people to use unhealthy methods to try and suppress them. For example, a person that experiences anxiety or panic attack crossing a bridge they are more incline to avoid crossing a bridge at all cost. This avoidance can cause more anxiety to develop becoming a phobia of bridges or crossing bodies of water. It may be difficult for doctors to diagnose panic disorder because the symptoms associate with panic disorder such as chest pain and shortness of breath are also associated with potentially more serious conditions. Panic symptoms develop through internal phobia sensations that drive avoidance behavior. (Waters & Oliver, 2005) Proper diagnosis and treatment with medication and therapy can enhance the lifestyle of patients. Proper diagnosis and treatment are important, one and three people with panic disorder are depressed and one and five attempt suicide. People diagnosed with panic disorder have many treatment options. Treatment for this disorder includes antidepressants, Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), antidepressants plus CBT, and Benzodiazepines. Developing an effective treatment plan is done through a shared decision making process between a doctor and his patient. Antidepressant medications have been shown to reduce the severity if panic attacks and/or wipe out panic attacks completely. There are many antidepressants medications used in the treatment of panic disorder such as Benzodiazepines: Alprazolam and Clonazepam. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI): Citalopram, Fluoxetine, Fluvoxamine, Paraoxetine, and Sertraline. Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs): Clomipramin and imipramine. Other agents such as Mirtazapine are also used to medically treat panic disorder. The choice of antidepressant to be taken should be selected base on the side effects and patient’s preferences. Cognitive behavior therapy or CBT applies many techniques that include applied relaxation, panic management, breathing retraining, and cognitive reconstructing. Through suggested sessions of cognitive behavior therapy 73 percent of treated patients were without panic free in a three to four month period. 46 percent of treated patients were panic free for two years, (Waters & Oliver, 2005) Antidepressants and CBTs are both effective measure for the treatment of panic disorders but it is unclear if one is more superior or effective than the other. Some studies suggest that antidepressants produce better results in the reduction of panic symptoms and other studies suggest that CBTs produce better results. There is also confliction of whether combined antidepressants and cognitive behavioral therapy improves the outcome, but studies have shown great benefits in meta-analysis on a short term scale. Benzodiazepines are just as effective as antidepressant at reducing symptoms as well as frequency of panic attacks. Benzodiapines are well tolerated but can cause depression and are associated with adverse effects during and after discontinued used of the medication prescribed. Patients diagnosed with panic disorder with history of preexisting comorbid depression who are treated with benzodiapines do not fair as well as patients who were not. Panic disorder is a debilitating disorder that is identified by characteristics or symptoms that include panic attacks, chest pain, rapid heartbeat, sweating, and dizziness to name a few. Panic attacks are unpredictable can, happen frequent or infrequently, and last several days. Doctors have a hard time with the diagnosis of panic disorder due to the symptoms being associated to more severe conditions. Patients diagnosed with panic disorder have many treatment options such as antidepressant medications that reduce and or stop symptoms, cognitive behavior therapy (CNTs), Cognitive behavior therapy combined with antidepressants, as wells Benzodiapines. Reference Morris,C.G., & Maisto, A.A. (2005). Psychology: An Introduction. (12th ed.). Upper saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Roy-Byrne, P., Craske, M., & Stein, M. (2006). Panic disorder. Lancet, 368(9540), 1023-1032. Retrieved from MEDLINE with Full Text database. Ham, P., Waters, D., & Oliver, M. (2005). Treatment of panic disorder. American Family Physician, 71(4), 733-739. Retrieved from MEDLINE with Full Text database. Nevid, J.S. & Rathus, S.A. (2005). Psychology and the challenges of life: Adjustments in the new millennium (9thed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.