See also: Panic attack and agoraphobia
These two disorders can be present together or in isolation.
Panic attack
Panic disorder has a prevalence of 1-5% over the lifetime, and affects women more than men 2-3 times.
Onset of the disease generally occurs in young adults (average age 25 years). People affected by separation or divorce are more affected.
Symptoms
To learn more: Symptoms Panic Attack
The panic attack is a sudden episode, peaking in about ten minutes, during which the subject feels a sensation of imminent catastrophe in fear of going crazy, losing control or dying, accompanied by various neurovegetative symptoms such as dyspnea, palpitations, pain or discomfort in the chest, feeling of suffocation. Each attack lasts an average of 20 to 30 minutes, and forces the affected person to seek help. The patient commonly goes to the emergency room.
Causes
Usually the panic attack is not triggered by specific stimuli, but it can happen that it is, and that there are situations that favor it.
Panic Disorder tends to be a chronic disease, that is, to never completely heal. Its severity is relative, given that only in about 10-20% of cases the symptoms are such as to limit existence. We can often find it associated with depression or addiction to substances, especially alcohol, which seems to be a "self-care" modality to combat anxiety.
Diagnosis
To be able to make a certain diagnosis of a panic attack it is necessary that the attack be unexpected, that, in the following month, the patient has the worry of a new attack or the consequences that it creates (if it has already happened before), or that it changes their behavior through avoidance strategies.
Agoraphobia
The prevalence of agoraphobia is between 0.6 and 6% and also in this case the favoring factor turns out to be a traumatic event.
Agoraphobia is a condition in which anxiety is proven in relation to open places, including public spaces and means of locomotion, from which it would be difficult or embarrassing to leave or where there could be no help in the event of panic symptoms.
This results in avoidance behaviors, ie the subject keeps away from these places, or manifests anticipatory anxiety, or a clear refusal to be in such situations out of fear. It is therefore common that these subjects tend to remain closed at home to go out only in company (conduct of reassurance), something from which inevitable difficulties derive for their life, especially social and working life.
Agoraphobia also has a chronic pattern, and is generally more disabling than panic disorder, since, unlike it, it does not occur episodically but is constant. It should however be considered that the two disorders often associate.
Treatment
The first intervention to treat these diseases is to reassure the patient, making him understand that his disorder is well known and treatable. It is also good to eliminate coffee and alcohol from the diet.
In some cases the increase in breathing (hyperventilation) during the attack causes a feeling of lack of air; for this reason, it is advisable to hold the breath for 10-15 seconds or to breathe in and out of a paper bag.
The most commonly used drugs are benzodiazepines (anxiolytics) and some antidepressants.
