Panic is usually associated with behaviors to avoid activities and situations, which may meet the criteria for agoraphobia.
For those who suffer from an inadequately treated or misdiagnosed panic disorder, the belief that they have a life-threatening illness can cause chronic and debilitating anxiety and lead to excessive visits to care facilities.
Other undesirable consequences that are usually derived from panic are deterioration in social and work functioning, low self-esteem, hypochondriac attitudes, alcohol or anxiolytic abuse, and even an increase in premature deaths.
A person suffering from this disorder may present the following symptoms: shortness of breath, palpitations, dizziness, chills, urination, perspiration and chest tightness.
Research based on psychological theories has expanded the understanding of this disorder and has allowed the development of effective psychological treatments for panic.
Effective psychological treatments are based on the observation that what the panicked patient fears are internal sensations. Once this phobic stimulus is detected, psychological treatment becomes possible: through exposure to it and/or through cognitive techniques that lead to a re-evaluation of the supposed danger that these sensations would entail. In turn, the effectiveness of various treatments, both pharmacological and psychological, with which a complete elimination of symptoms is achieved in the majority of patients.
