Myth or Fact
Hello everyone,
As promised I have done some searching and came upon a journal article which I thought was somewhat helpful, if not at least interesting (I'll include the citation at the bottom).
First of all, thanks for your response JGD84, actually in the article it did mention how panic is an escalating process and also how genetics do play a role (as found by looking at twin studies). So you are very much so correct.
This article, as Davit mentioned, talked about how neurotransmitters play an important role in the panic disorder. In this article the author talked about a study done by Antony and Swinson (researchers) who tried to induce panic in people by stimulating the nervous system, and they interestingly enough noted that although they can stimulate the nervous system to have a “panic attack” not all people had an attack. Some people did not have an attack even when the nervous system was stimulated. In these cases, psychological factors played an important a role and more specifically the perceived control over the situation and the presence of a safe person (or rather having someone for social support). So in other words, these people were able to stop the panic attack from happening, even when their nervous system was stimulated, because they felt in control of the situation and because they had someone with them they trusted. I'm not sure if this answers your question Davit, can a panic attack be stopped by thoughts alone, it seems that in some people it is possible.
The article went on to talk about the staircase model as JGD84 mentioned, where normal physical sensations (such as a racing heart, dizziness) can be misinterpreted to indicate immediate danger. As a result of these misinterpretations the symptoms escalate and lead to even more misleading interpretations and catastrophic predictions.
Actual biological factors can play a role, for example the sensations that start the panic cycle, may be caused by too much caffeine, intense emotions, fatigue, hunger, hyperventilation or simply paying too close attention to bodily feelings. According to the article, there are 70% of individuals who have reported that their panic attacks are triggered by a physical sensation, but often time people take this sensation and misinterpreted it as a sign of impeding disaster.
This article also talked about how pharmacotherapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy are both used for treating panic disorder, but it mentioned that evidence shows that CBT is more effective treatment for ensuring that gains are maintained over the long term. CBT usually includes exposure to feared situations, exposure to exercises that trigger the feared sensations, cognitive therapy (where you consider evidence that contradicts fearful thinking, and relaxation based techniques. All of these are included in the program we have in the Panic Disorder center.
What I found interesting is that the article mentioned how for agoraphobic individuals exposure work is particularly useful, and that relaxation based techniques are thought to be less important than the exposure based and cognitive techniques.
Not sure if this is helpful or not, I know it is a lot of information. Let me know what you think.
Luciana, Bilingual Health Educator
(Also, the citation is as follows: Antony, M.M. (2004). Panic Disorder. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, Pages 11015-11020. I found the article through the York University's online resources center)
