Causes, Prevalence, and Treatment of Panic Disorder - Essay Example

Running Head: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THREE DIFFERENT METHODS                             FOR TREATING PANIC DISORDER      A Critical Evaluation of Three Different Methods for Treating Panic Disorder Name Institution            Date   Introduction        Panic disorder can be defined as a sudden attack of terror and fear or a different period of immense discomfort that usually lasts for 10 minutes or so. It resembles heart attack in many aspects. Incidences of panic disorder may occur at any given moment without any reasons what so ever, but more often it is triggered by use of elevators’ or driving, specific thoughts, events, lack of breathe, profusely sweating and tremulous. The attack might be terrifying in nature; some people may opt never to go to that place where the dreadful event occurred.        Causes of panic disorder        There are some causes that trigger the occurrences of panic disorder to an individual. Hereditary cause; Evidence has proven that panic disorder runs in many families if not all. Further more, some people may develop this kind of disease yet they do not have any background history about the disorder in their families. Several surveys have been made and it occurred that identical twins are most endangered species to this kind of disease. The possibility of them suffering from this kind of disease ranges to 31 to 88%; these twins have a higher possibility of suffering from the disease. Environmental evidence has shown that panic disorder may also be as a result of accumulating stress for a long period of time. People exposed to stress and depressions have increased probability of suffering from cardiac arrest. This due to straining brain activity which results to increased blood pressure. Chronic illness such as Wolff-Parkinson or CPVT is a Cardiac condition that might result to sudden death. In addition the White syndrome is also responsible for panic disorders. These diseases may be difficult to handle since the resulting effect may lead to shock and cardiac arrest. It is very hard for a person suffering from cardiac arrest to distinguish between cardiac dysfunctional and anxiety symptoms. In CPVT, the cause of anxiety can trigger arrhythmia. People suffering from this type of disease have a high frequency level of visiting the hospital from time to time.  It is however, very difficult for individuals who have been diagnosed with the diseases to differentiate between panic attack without electrocardiogram.  Medication; Ritalin (methylphenidate) or fluoroquinolone is a type of antibiotics that may lead to panic disorder .This side effects may be temporarily or permanent in nature in the event of continuity of using such a drug. Antidepressants may also result to high level of anxiety at the initiate period of use. It is not usual for users immediately after completing their dosage, to show symptoms of anxiety and further suffer from panic disorder.  However the attacks may occur at the later stages (Sternbach1997). Symptoms’ of panic disorder       Sometimes it is thought that panic disorder is as a result of aberration of the brain. Aberration may be defined as unsuitably activation the entire body which eventually discharges a hormone responsible for flit, other patients are sometime found to have minimal serotonin receptor, known as 5-HTA, that is related to three areas of the brain, raphe, cingulated and posterior. This area has connection with the human emotions. There are several symptoms of panic disorder, this includes, Sweating, Sensation of difficulties in breathing, Nausea, Sensitivity of choking, Trembling, Palpitation Chest discomfort ,Dizziness, Hot flashes, Fear of death, Fear of going insane and Parenthesis Prevalence of panic disorder        Background research was carried out and it occurred that women were prone people to this kind of disease than men, however postmenopausal has not been clearly defined within men. Cross-selection survey of around 3369 societies was carried out; men enrolled themselves in 1997 while women enrolled in the year 2000.At 10 and 40 centers for men and women respectively. Participants were between the ages of 50–79.The first panic attack was reported 17.9% in women. Panic attacks were thus linked with functional injury even after changing to comorbid medical and depression (Gerald 1993). The consequence of panic disorder is that it subjects the patient to fear. Thus disrupts an individual’s normal functioning. Sometimes the patient may undergo pain for more than a month without panic attack, however, their life is still filled with fear and anxiety of either death, running mad and hopeless. Panic disorder may be permanent, especially if it is inherited. Beta blockers        Another name for beta blockers is beta antagonists. They are cluster of drugs introduced to treat heart condition and high blood pressure. Later on, it was realized that the same treatment could be useful for treating panic disorder (anxiety) and so many other diseases. In United States of America, the most commonly used drug is propranolol.       The outcome of beta blockers is that it functions on the central nervous system so as to control mental illness, heart rate, blood vessels and finally lung function. Although there are several mechanism used by beta blockers to deal with panic disorder. The main importance of beta antagonists is the fact that it reduces the high rate at which the heart pumps to normal. Hence forth, a person suffering from panic disorder does not undergo odd chest discomfort and rapid heart rate (Gerald 1993). The effect of using Beta blockers is that it reduces blood pressure in the body. In addition, patient will not be subjected to this kind of treatment if blood pressure is below or above 90/60.Beta blockers may lead to unwanted plunge in heart rate. People whose heart rate beats at the 55 per minute are advised not to use beta blockers at any given moment. Sometimes the patients may experiences rashes on their bodies, nausea, vomiting, weakness, and patients may become restless and have stomach discomfort.  Psychotherapy  treatment       This is a treatment used on mentally challenged individual or any other condition that requires the agency of the treatment, it includes panic disorder. This treatment involves, reassurance, persuasion, instructions and suggests to the patients. This is meant to enable patients understand themselves and their problems as well in a more realistic manner so that they may have the desire to cope with the situation effectively and efficient. There are different types of Psychotherapy  treatment, it include the following, family therapy, psychodynamic therapy, cognitive therapy and finally interpersonal Therapy (Sternbach1997).       The outcome of psychodynamic psychotherapy assists patients to handle difficulties in a more reasonable manner; it also improves on interpersonal skills, develop new ideas about their thoughts behavior and most of their feeling. The main aim of the therapy is to assist patients to live a positive life. This treatment inspires most of the patients to take more tests thus enabling them to cope with greater impending. The last treatment is the most important treatment of them all, since it allows patients to tell how they feel after wards.       Treatment for panic disorder is through Psychotherapy  treatment. Some of the side effects of the therapy are; some patients may have a high possibility of relapse. The best solution of avoiding a relapse is by getting the best therapist who is competent. After the treatment some may opt to go back to their lives. For instance remain alcoholic. While others may decide to quite the treatment especially if the subject that is being discussed is so awful. If the subject matter is dreadful in nature a person may suffer from panic disorder.       The positive characteristics of the research study is that it shows a distinctive difference between the research and thereby outlining the strategic ways of an interventionist, it includes waiting list pressure, main outcome measures, scope of work and responsibilities of the therapist and health practitioner of the mental ailed patients. However, the efficiency of the control research is very important in the assessment of therapeutic interventions meant to deal will the mentally challenged individual. This mental disease may have occurred as a result of panic disorder in an individual. Before providing the therapeutic advice to the public, protagonist says that it is important to understand the entire process first. For the therapist to give his classes, he must be competent and skillful while handling matters of panic disorder (Gerald 1993). The negative indicator of psychotherapy research is the ability to quantify major characteristics of the patients suffering from mental illness as a result of panic disorder. It involves intensive review of the files in order to understand the reliability of such instrument. The research project has two major research managers who must approve the research system. Several authors outcome on the research are affected by interpersonal attachment of clinical case managers. Different authors explain and suggest different ways of dealing with patients suffering from mental illness as a result of panic disorder. There are two hypothesize attachment of the state of mind, that is deactivating and hyper activating. Deactivating is associated with reflecting the information about the topic in discussion. Anxiety       Anxiety may be defined as a medical disorder that subjects someone to immense fear, worry and anxiety as a result of panic disorder. The physical side effect of this type of illness is that, someone experiences high heart pumping, dry mouth, nausea, trembling and diarrhoea. There are various types of anxiety disorder in patients; it includes the following; social anxiety, specific phobias and a generalised disorder. However, treatment to anxiety varies from one patient to the other, depending on the temperament of the disorder. Person with panic disorder may be asked from time to time to visit that place associated with the dreadful attack. With the therapy patients are encouraged to deal with the situation rather than running away from it. The therapy helps to eliminate misconception and ideas leading to anxiety. The Side effect of anxiety treatment is, feeling awful, feeling jumpy; trouble in concentrating, irritability, sometimes patients may be forgetful, nightmares and obsession about a particular sensation. Cognitive effects of anxiety may include fear of losing your life and lack confidence about yourself. There are number of positive aspects in the research approach. The observations of the research are usually flexible. Flexible in the manner that it does not need too much structuring, For example, while carrying out a structured research question, the researcher will have to conduct an observation. This observation is usually strong. However, the negative aspect of the research is that sometimes the research may be too generalised to particular population instead of an individual. The researcher may sometimes be biased while giving the information about anxiety.   There are several ways for treatment of anxiety. Anxiety may be due to inheritance or developing it in the course of growth and development of human beings. Anxiety treatment and symptoms in individual suffering from panic disorder includes obsessions, chronic disorder and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).however it is not very clear about the cause of anxiety by most of the scientists if not all. Some ill cannot explain the major cause of the ailing.  Conclusion In conclusion panic disorder may be controlled if an individual is willing to cooperate with the doctors so that treatment may be immediately redirected to them. It is very important for patient’s to understand the cause of the disorder. If the cause is avoidable, patients should try as much as possible to shun from it. Panic disorder may at time be one time experience. However, panic circumstances may subject the patient to feel so scared. Thus triggers his capacity to think properly. It is very important for patients to visit the scene of the dreadful experience to help patients overcome the fear that is build inside them. In spite of the cause, panic disorder is treatable. There are many effectual treatments and coping scheme you can use to deal with the symptoms. If it is noticed earlier patients are advised to seek medical attention. References Gerald L, et al. (1993). Panic Anxiety and Its Treatments: Report of the World Psychiatric Association Presidential Educational Program Task Force. American Psychiatric Association. Sternbach, H & State R. (1997). "Antibiotics: neuropsychiatry effects and psychotropic interactions". Harv Rev Psychiatry 5 (4): 214–26. Read More