Journal Article About Panic Attacks

STUDENT: Michael Crabb DATE: November 9th, 2014

NAME OF JOURNAL ARTICLE: What is Panic Disorder

****SOURCE: National Institute of Mental Health (There was not a date posted) Panic Disorder causes and symptoms Accessed from: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/panic-disorder/index.shtml (20 POINTS)

  This article begins with an explanation of what Panic Disorder really is. This disorder causes people have attacks of fear that last for minutes of a time, and sometimes longer. Panic attacks are caused by the person losing control of a situation even when there is no real danger to the person. This disorder can go so far as to disrupt the daily work and school lives of people who suffer from it, and as a result people who suffer from this have become known to become ashamed because they cannot carry out daily simple tasks without the fear of suffering from a panic attack from doing something as simple as going to the grocery store.

Panic attacks are known to run in the family, but research has found that there are several parts of the brain that are involved with fear and anxiety which is leading researchers to believe that stress and emotional factors might be a underlying cause of panic attacks. Some of the symptoms they point out are intense worry about another attack happening, physical symptoms happening during an attack such as chest pain or weakness, and fear and avoiding places where the person may have already suffered a panic attack in the past. Panic attacks are more common in women than men, and this has led to people suffering from other disorders such as agoraphobia which is a fear of open spaces.

One of the ways that doctors treat panic attacks with is antidepressants which can create issues because of the side effects of using medication of this nature, however the article points out that the dosage for the antidepressants used to treat panic attacks is usually a low enough dosage that the side effects are not likely to occur....