Panic Attacks on Women - Term Paper Example

Panic attacks on women Student name Institution Tutor Panic attacks on women Introduction Panic attacks are a mass of sudden fear mixed with anxiety over anticipated events. A person is overcome by this sudden fear over something that is yet to occur. Occasionally, people witness some bad event, something that is hard to forget. These include the accidents fires, gunshots all that increase the heart racing of an individual with the mixture of fear and anxiety in an individual. Whereas for most of the people such feeling are likely to occur after a specific event like the accidents gunshots or a stressing event in life for others this action can occur spontaneously. It means that for these people the attack will occur even if there is nothing that elicits this response. Among the majority of the people that experience the panic attack the women forms the majority. women are more likely to get the panic attacks than men are something the research has not elaborated the reasons. Panic attacks like other illness can be diagnosed and treated in the hospital or by a skillful person. Antianxiety drugs have shown to be of greater value in the treatment of these panic attacks in women. Panic attacks pose a challenge to women of all ages. A panic attack is a topic of choice due to the seriousness of the attacks. Panic attacks in women are always severe and most of the time takes a longer time than they would in their male counterparts. Whereas the incidences of the panic attacks vary from one person to another, it is evident that they are frequent in females and most of the cases need medical and counselling attention for them to fade (Goodwin et al., 2014). Besides, a panic attack requires a long period of treatment in which the person is put on antidepressants. Usually, these antidepressants render the person inactive for a long time due to their sedative effect. This forms my interest in this area, as the medical care for panic attacks is the isolation of the people from the event that that will simulate the attack itself (Le Mellédo et al. 2014). The study of the panic attacks forms the core of its management thus; its relevance to human life cannot be undermined. First, the study of panic attacks provides insight to humans on how this condition affects people. In this, the study presents the manifestations of the condition the predisposing factors how the condition occurs and management of the condition. This means that by the virtue of this research people will have a vivid understanding of the panic attacks in women making them more prepared to manage them when they occur. Secondly, the study also provides persons with a way to manage the side effects of the antidepressants that are used to manage the panic attacks. This shifts the goal of care from the single panic attack management to the holistic care to these attacks (Goodwin et al., 2014). Either this eliminates the monotherapy these patients receive substituting it with an integrated care approach that will enrich these patients with better care. Finally, by increasing the awareness of this condition, people will have more acceptances to people who suffer from this condition something that is sometimes had among people who regard them as freaks. This includes acceptance of girl child in school and women in the workplace. Therefore, in this study I will look at various components of the panic attack among women. This will include the factors that dispose people to this condition. Whereas I will look at the general factors predisposing people to this condition, I will differentiate specific factors that are related to the women who form the core of this study. Secondly, I will discuss the development of the disease and show how the disease progress to be worse. In this, I will look at the identifying factors and differentiate; those from those of post-traumatic stress syndrome as these two conditions tend to share some symptoms. Besides, I will look at the treatment options and the general management of the condition in women. Here, methods of overcoming panic attack will be tackled. Finally, I will discuss living with panic attack women. Hypotheses 1. Panic attacks affect women than men both in prevalence and manifestation 2. Panic attacks in women can be detected by periodic assessment thus easily treated 3. Factors that trigger panic attacks in women can be easily identified and isolated 4. In women, panic attacks will present with hypoventilation than hyperventilation. Previous researchers When a patient has a panic disorder, numerous factors can trigger an attack, these ranges from real triggers to imaginary anticipatory triggers. In a study to determine the factors that can trigger a panic attack, Lissek et al., (2014)carried out a study to investigate this. In the study, Lissek et al., (2014) wanted to find the generalizable factors that can trigger an attack in the individual. Their study involved classical conditioning of individuals in many of the etiological factors for the panic attack disorder. They set a neutral ground, and a triggered or stimulated ground for factors that resembled the real factors that causes the attack. In this study, they utilized 19 of the subjects that fully fitted in the DSM II R criterion for the diagnosis of the panic attack and 19 normal subjects. The patients they were stimulated and monitored for the fear generalization as projected on the computer monitor. In addition, generalization was monitored and assessed by fear potentiating of the blink reflex. This study was done to both the male and the females. Sheikh et al. (2014) carried out a study to find out which group of the individual had a high susceptibility to panic attack. In this study, they explored the prevalence of specific panic symptom manifestation in men and female. In their study, they carried out a survey of data from 609 respondents who satisfied the DSM III R a standard criterion for diagnosing the panic attack disorder. Their aim in this study was to identify that group of people male or female who had the greater manifestation of the panic attack disorder and which signs and symptoms that had a greater manifestation. For this type of study, they selected the 609 samples of individual from the database for the comparison. The secondary data they used was based on those people who had been previously had full known to be suffering from the panic attacks. In addition, they utilized the most common signs and symptoms in their study to arrive in the following findings. For instance, they compared the shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations, choking and the general feeling of detachment from the surrounding. In understanding the disease process in panic attacks Papp et al, (2015) carried out a study to determine respiratory abnormalities in women during the panic attack. In this study, they wanted to determine the role of respiration in a panic attack by utilization of an improved method. In the study, Papp et al., (2015) utilized 98 women. Among the 98 women involved in the study, fifty-nine satisfied the DMS III R criterion for classification as people with a panic attack while the remaining thirty-nine were normal people. The study involved a challenge of inhalation of five percent carbon dioxide, seven percent carbon dioxide and in room air hyperventilation. They were separated by room air breathing and spirometry. The researchers wanted to find out how the disease does affect respiration of the sick person than that of the normal person. The result of this research is vital to help in understanding how the women are more likely to suffer related respiratory conditions during the attack than any other symptoms. In addition, the study was important to distinguish the normal women from the women having the panic attacks. Finally, after finding the cause of the disorder, the pathophysiology and the manifestation, it is important to understand the treatment of panic disorders in women. In any disease, prevention is better than cure if conditions are discovered early they will be better treated. Means if there is a possibility to discover the susceptibility to of panic attack disorder to women its management will be easy. To answer this, Smith et al., (2014) did a studied the Screening for Panic Disorder in the pregnant women attending antenatal clinics. In this study, they wanted to assess the rates of detection and treatment of panic disorders among the pregnant women. Smith et al., (2014) interviewed and screened 387 women attending these visits on each woman’s examination. After this, the women asked if the clinician denied a mood disorder and the results crosschecked with the psychiatric records. Summary of the findings Lissek et al., (2014) found that the panic patients showed stouter conditioned generalization as compared to the comparison subjects. Whereas the level of generalization of the patients with panic attack disorder was 3 folds, those of the normal people were about generally (Lissek et al., 2014). This implies there was an enormous dissimilarity between the two individuals, these that had the disorder than those who did not have the disorder (Lissek et al., 2014). From this finding, it is demonstrable that there is an increase in proclivity geared to the fear generalization among the panic attack patients. Since this was based on the laboratory, finding the correlation is more likely to be positive in these cases (Lissek et al., 2014). In addition, given the level of the interrelatedness of the source of conditioning is direct thus this shows a clear trigger. Even though this study is general to both the males and the females, the findings are important explaining the trigger of this disorder in females. From the isolation of these factors, management of the panic attacks can be made possible. In the management of any condition, the first step is the identification of the triggers once the person knows the triggers management of the condition will then be easier (Lissek et al., 2014). Specifically, this conditioning provides an assumed basis of the state of the fear that result from the panic attack. Eventually, this goes a long way in the treatment of the condition even without the use of the drugs (Lissek et al., 2014). Treatments based on conditioning works better in women than in the males. Fear as a general factor provides an insight into the causes of this disease. Sheikh et al., (2014) found that, epidemiologically there was a high prevalence of female suffering from the panic attacks than the male. In the case they studied, the females formed three-fifths of the people that had the panic attack and two-thirds of the category of people with severest attacks (Sheikh et al., 2014). Among all the gender, there was a fair distribution of signs and symptoms of the panic attacks. The most prevalent signs were shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations, choking and the general feeling of detachment from the surrounding. However, most of these symptoms were severe in females than in males (Sheikh et al., 2014). For instance, among the data that was analyzed from the national comorbidity survey female respondents with panic attack disorder were more likely to experience the respiratory difficulty than the male suffering from the panic attacks. Besides, the heart conditions like the palpitations were more frequent in the female than from the male (Sheikh et al., 2014). Either, the female responders with the panic attack or panic attack disorder are more likely to gate multiple of the manifestations than males do. Sheikh et al., (2014) postulated for a differing intensity at which different symptoms occur for the patients with a panic attack based on their gender. They find the difference to be deeply rooted in the difference in carbon dioxide sensitivity difference between these genders (Sheikh et al., 2014). They explain that the carbon dioxide threshold difference for panic attracts differ between the two genders during the panic attacks especially during the hypercapnia and hypoxia states. This difference makes the women be more susceptible to attacks than the males. Since the female have a lower threshold for carbon dioxide, they are likely to experience shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations, choking and the general feeling of detachment from the surrounding than the males(Sheikh et al., 2014). Therefore, in the management it is clear to understand these differences in the women to achieve the required effect. This means that whereas both the male and the female are likely to get the panic attack symptoms that include shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations, choking and the general feeling of detachment from the surrounding, a person needs to be more vigilant in the female as these symptoms develop sporadically (Sheikh et al., 2014). Utilizing this, the symptoms can be identified and treated before they can cause real damage. Papp et al., (2015) found that women who had panic attack disorder were more sensitive to the anxiety turnouts of carbon dioxide than those individuals who were normal. This means that carbon dioxide is more likely to cause panic than hyperventilation (Papp et al., 2015). From this finding women who have panic attacks raise their respiratory rate faster in the even they are inhaling carbon dioxide as compared to the individuals who are normal something that will increase the preceded attacks. In this, the women with panic attacks at the lower carbon dioxide had a low-end tidal volume than the ones without (Papp et al., 2015). Therefore, from these finding it is evident that women with panic attacks have lower finding something that will be more likely to predispose them to respiratory mismatch but not hyperventilation. These individuals are therefore more prone to further panic attacks due to low oxygen the reaches the body. An absolute management in the event of the attack will eliminate this. Sine there are many factors that will predispose the women to the panic attacks it is well for them to receive good care (Papp et al., 2015). In addition, from these findings, the women will experience greater behavioral and psychological sensitivity with the panic attack to carbon dioxide inhalation that will activate a series of respiratory abnormalities (Papp et al., 2015). Therefore, when women with panic disorders get the panic attack many inefficient respiratory compensatory mechanisms are based on the respiratory rate. Smith et al., (2014) found that only those women that were discovered to have panic attacks received adequate care. According to the research, the women who were discovered early for their panic disorder received adequate care that lead to better coping (Smith et al., 2014). They underwent various types of medications as they were recorded in the psychiatric history. The subsequent visits report having declined the incidents. Therefore, this research is a clear indication that once the panic attack disorders have been identified it become clear that the management of the disorder will be easy. Either from the finding it was suggested that people are more likely to have a good prognosis if they have advance knowledge of their condition (Smith et al., 2014). In addition to the findings for screening, Smith et al., (2014).found that, women with panic disorders were more likely to be identified to have the mental illness at some point in their pregnancy. This means that continued interaction with the care providers facilitates for easier identification of the illness (Smith et al., 2014). It was also found that women screened positive for panic disorders are currently receiving treatment or had received the treatment outside the prenatal visit. From this research, twenty-six of the women are discovered for the first time in their antenatal clinics of their panic disorder (Smith et al., 2014). Whereas the detection rates of the depressive disorder among women are low in the obstetric step, the few that are discovered receive adequate care both in the clinic and in referral (Smith et al., 2014). Therefore, these mothers have a better chance of facing life with their children than those that are not screened. Interview The researcher interviewed a physician about one of his cases in which he dealer with regarding panic attack. He discussed the panic attack in general and mentioned several ways of treatments. One of the common cases was the following: A 26 years old women came to the ER complaining of difficulty in breathing, fear of death and described it as her heart will pound out of her chest, and she is feeling her heart beats racing. There are different symptoms in which their patients present with. The most important thing is to exclude the medical causes. For this patient, the doctor excluded hyperthyroidism in which thyroid gland hormone exceeds normal levels and causes symptoms of palpitation and hot flushes. In addition, he excludes hypoglycemia, drug use, medical with a drawl and any heart defects (excluded by eco). After taking a proper history from the patient and excluding other medical conditions, the physician starts the plan for treatment. For this patient anxiety from work, children and other responsibilities of life led to these panic attack episodes, this woman suffered from similar attacks 6 months ago but did not seek medical advice. Regarding medical treatment and management, the doctor put the patient on a course of treatment of diazepam for 10 – 14 days in order to control the acute symptoms and for the long-term management he started a course of SSRI such as Prozac and advice follow-ups . The effect of SSRI does not show early, so the patient has to be prescribed SSRI for at least 6 months, not less than that. After 6 months of being treated with SSRI, the patient is re-evaluated in order to decide either to continue SSRI or stop, for this patient a period of 6 months was enough as the patient showed improvement. Along with this treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy is effective and advised to follow up with a psychologist. Conclusion Indeed, from the researchers that were identified it has been proved that there are more women with panic attacks than men. This, therefore, proves my hypothesis right in this perspective. Besides, since the factor that causes the panic attacks is already known people can easily avoid the factors thus prevent the occurrence of the panic attack. In addition, in the panic state the women victims are likely to present with hypoventilation than hyperventilation thus in line with the hypotheses. Finally, whereas, it is easy to prevent the panic attacks by screening and detection, only 26 percent of panics can be prevented thus making my hypothesis be true. References Goodwin, R. D., Lieb, R., Hoefler, M., Pfister, H., Bittner, A., Bees do, K., & Wittchen, H.-U. (2014). Panic attack as a risk factor for severe psychopathology. American Journal of Psychiatry. Le Mellédo, J.-M., Van Driel, M., Coupland, N. J., Lott, P., & Jhangri, G. S. (2014). Response to flumazenil in women with the premenstrual dysphoric disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry. Lissek, S., Rabin, S., Heller, R. E., Lukenbaugh, D., Geraci, M., Pine, D. S., & Grillon, C. (2014). Overgeneralization of conditioned fear as a pathogenic marker of the panic disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry. Papp, L. A., Martinez, J. M., Klein, D. F., Coplan, J. D., Norman, R. G., Cole, R. Gorman, J. M. (2015). Respiratory psychophysiology of panic disorder: three respiratory challenges in 98 subjects. American Journal of Psychiatry. Sheikh, J. I., Leskin, G. A., & Klein, D. F. (2014). Gender differences in panic disorder: findings from the National Comorbidity Survey. American Journal of Psychiatry. Smith, M. V., Rosenheck, R. A., Cavaleri, M. A., Howell, H. B., Poschman, K., & Yonkers, K. A. (2014). Screening for and detection of depression, panic disorder, and PTSD in public- sector obstetric clinics. Psychiatric Services. Read More

In this, the study presents the manifestations of the condition the predisposing factors how the condition occurs and management of the condition. This means that by the virtue of this research people will have a vivid understanding of the panic attacks in women making them more prepared to manage them when they occur. Secondly, the study also provides persons with a way to manage the side effects of the antidepressants that are used to manage the panic attacks. This shifts the goal of care from the single panic attack management to the holistic care to these attacks (Goodwin et al., 2014). Either this eliminates the monotherapy these patients receive substituting it with an integrated care approach that will enrich these patients with better care.

Finally, by increasing the awareness of this condition, people will have more acceptances to people who suffer from this condition something that is sometimes had among people who regard them as freaks. This includes acceptance of girl child in school and women in the workplace. Therefore, in this study I will look at various components of the panic attack among women. This will include the factors that dispose people to this condition. Whereas I will look at the general factors predisposing people to this condition, I will differentiate specific factors that are related to the women who form the core of this study.

Secondly, I will discuss the development of the disease and show how the disease progress to be worse. In this, I will look at the identifying factors and differentiate; those from those of post-traumatic stress syndrome as these two conditions tend to share some symptoms. Besides, I will look at the treatment options and the general management of the condition in women. Here, methods of overcoming panic attack will be tackled. Finally, I will discuss living with panic attack women. Hypotheses 1.

Panic attacks affect women than men both in prevalence and manifestation 2. Panic attacks in women can be detected by periodic assessment thus easily treated 3. Factors that trigger panic attacks in women can be easily identified and isolated 4. In women, panic attacks will present with hypoventilation than hyperventilation. Previous researchers When a patient has a panic disorder, numerous factors can trigger an attack, these ranges from real triggers to imaginary anticipatory triggers. In a study to determine the factors that can trigger a panic attack, Lissek et al., (2014)carried out a study to investigate this.

In the study, Lissek et al., (2014) wanted to find the generalizable factors that can trigger an attack in the individual. Their study involved classical conditioning of individuals in many of the etiological factors for the panic attack disorder. They set a neutral ground, and a triggered or stimulated ground for factors that resembled the real factors that causes the attack. In this study, they utilized 19 of the subjects that fully fitted in the DSM II R criterion for the diagnosis of the panic attack and 19 normal subjects.

The patients they were stimulated and monitored for the fear generalization as projected on the computer monitor. In addition, generalization was monitored and assessed by fear potentiating of the blink reflex. This study was done to both the male and the females. Sheikh et al. (2014) carried out a study to find out which group of the individual had a high susceptibility to panic attack. In this study, they explored the prevalence of specific panic symptom manifestation in men and female. In their study, they carried out a survey of data from 609 respondents who satisfied the DSM III R a standard criterion for diagnosing the panic attack disorder.

Their aim in this study was to identify that group of people male or female who had the greater manifestation of the panic attack disorder and which signs and symptoms that had a greater manifestation. For this type of study, they selected the 609 samples of individual from the database for the comparison.

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