Panic disorder
Panic disorder is a form of an anxiety disorder which is characterized by sudden terror feelings that reoccur unexpectedly. The panic attacks happen anytime and anywhere even if there is no danger. Panic disorder occurs over a short time – within minutes, but people suffering from panic attacks often lose control due to intense fear. Some of the most common symptoms of panic disorder include:
Intense fear that something bad is going to happen
Palpitation
Numbness
Shortness in breathing
Shaking
Sweating
Weakness
Dizziness
Very fast heartbeat
Stomach
Chest pain
However, panic disorder symptoms are often experienced within a very short time. People who have experienced the disorder for a long time may have ongoing worries and may tend to avoid places they experienced the attacks.
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Panic disorder can be treated by
Medication
Counseling
The use of medically prescribed antidepressants like beta blockers and benzodiazepine has been proved effective in treating Panic disorder ( Hahn, Kircher, Straube, Wittchen, Konrad, Ströhle & Lueken, 2015) . Cognitive behavioral counseling is also very effective in minimizing the condition symptoms and research indicate that more than half of reported panic disorder cases have been treated using cognitive behavioral counseling therapy. Culture has a great influence on panic disorder diagnosis and treatment since it is often associated with exaggerated body reactions due to substance abuse, life transition, stressful life events and other environmental factors.
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is also a form of anxiety disorder which is characterized by fear and avoidance of situation or places that may make one feel trapped and helpless. People suffering from agoraphobia fear both anticipated and actual situations that they perceive to be unsafe or without an easy way to escape. The typical symptoms of agoraphobia are
Fear of leaving home while alone
Fear of being in a crowded place like in public transport without a companion
The fear of enclosed place like a movie theater
Fear of being alone in an open place ( North, North & Coble, 2015) .
Basically, these places trigger anxiety and panic symptoms leading to a feeling of helplessness, disability, and embarrassment to them. Agoraphobia is a treatable condition using medication and counseling or a combination of the two forms of therapy. Prescribed antidepressants drugs such as the SNRIs (serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) and the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) reduce agoraphobia anxious symptoms ( Pompoli, Furukawa, Imai, Tajika, Efthimiou & Salanti, 2016) . Cognitive behavioral counseling therapy is important in challenging one's anxious thoughts and helps a person suffering from the condition to learn how to manage their anxiety when in the places they fear. The diagnosis and treatment of agoraphobia is impacted by culture since the condition is often associated with one own thought and belief about the environment and their past experiences.
Are Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia different conditions?
Both conditions are forms of anxiety disorders. Both conditions lead to the trigger of a panic condition that subjects the patient to anxiety. However, panic disorder is a recurring condition of panic attacks while patients with agoraphobia may experience or not experience panic attacks but fear to be in a situation that can cause anxiety ( Milrod et al., 2016) . In the situation with panic disorder, the panic attacks happen unexpected and the patient has no control over the attacks while with agoraphobia, the patient has the ability to control the cause of anxiety and panic attacks thus fear being exposed to specific situations that may trigger anxiety. Thus, not all patients who experience panic attacks have a panic disorder, it is only those with panic attack recurring symptoms have panic disorder since some individuals suffer agore3phobia without panic attacks although some few experience panic attacks.
References
Hahn, T., Kircher, T., Straube, B., Wittchen, H. U., Konrad, C., Ströhle, A. & Lueken, U. (2015). Predicting treatment response to cognitive behavioral therapy in panic disorder with agoraphobia by integrating local neural information. JAMA psychiatry , 72 (1), 68-74.
Milrod, B., Chambless, D. L., Gallop, R., Busch, F. N., Schwalberg, M., McCarthy, K. S. & Barber, J. P. (2016). Psychotherapies for panic disorder: a tale of two sites. The Journal of clinical psychiatry , 77 (7), 927-935.
North, M. M., North, S. M., & Coble, J. R. (2015). Effectiveness of virtual environment desensitization in the treatment of agoraphobia. International Journal of Virtual Reality (IJVR) , 1 (2), 25-34.
Pompoli, A., Furukawa, T. A., Imai, H., Tajika, A., Efthimiou, O., & Salanti, G. (2016). Psychological therapies for panic disorder with or without agoraphobia in adults: a network meta ‐ analysis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews , (4).
