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The beginnings...

Hippocrates, father of modern medicine, presented cases of obvious panic disorders and avoidance strategies in right earnest around 400 B.C. Later on Benedikt, around 1870, studied individuals with sudden onset of anxiety and dizziness while in public places. One of the earliest and clearest descriptions of this came from a syndrome experienced by Eskimo hunters. They evinced sudden, spontaneous episodes of extreme fright and excessive rapidity of heartbeat (tachycardia) before they prepared to hunt polar bears. In 1900s, it was described as `Kayak Angst,' meaning an `Eskimo Canoe Anxiety or Dread.'

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