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Got butterflies in the stomach?
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Panic disorder is common with wide scope for research work and treatment
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Panic disorder is two times more prevalent in females than males and it appears to fall into two peaks.
ANXIETY HIT Job interviews can induce panic
She gets that fluttery feeling in the stomach when called to make a speech, or preparing to face an interview board or even when getting ready to go for a wedding. She tends to anticipate the events, ruminates over it, and turns intense, anxious. This in turn brings butterflies in the stomach, a throbbing headache or a choking sensation down her throat. With morbid feeling, a cold chill would pass down her spine worsening her anxiety to a drastic `panic disorder.'
Panic disorder draws its name from the Greek God `Pan', God of Flocks. Pan is notorious for abruptly frightening all beings, animals and human beings, `out of blue.' This spontaneous quality of panic attacks is the distinguishing characteristic of panic disorder. It is central and crucial to its recognition and identification.
In panic attacks, the anxiety is crescendo in nature, rising to a peak within a few minutes in most cases and lasting for several minutes or hours. The attacks might appear extremely drastic and frightening and the patients could develop an essentially logical scare with anticipation of similar or worse occurrences. These may be termed as `anticipatory panic attacks' and increase characteristically prior to exposure to situations because of previous association with similar episodes. The experience induce fear because he feels that an escape from the situation may not be possible, as the one he experiences to be in an airplane, traffic jam or a lift. It is not the situation that upsets him, but it is the `What if' situation that creates the problem. This emphasises on a `a fear of the fear.' Some persons, because of this fear, limit their travel to short distances from home or take only safe routes to their destination because of lack of help or medical aid posts.
Panic disorder is two times more prevalent in females than males and it appears to fall into two peaks. The first occurs in the early mid-twenties (15-24 years) and the second peak at 41-54 years. This disorder is seldom seen after the age of 65 (0.1 percent) and occurs mostly in the widowed, divorced or separated individuals particularly living in cities. Limited education, early parental loss, peer group deprivations and physical or sexual abuse are some of the risk factors for the malady. Nevertheless, until the last couple of decades, panic disorder was actually thought to be a rare syndrome, but now it has turned out to be the most common presenting problems in individuals with scope for much research work and treatment.
DR. C. P. SOMASUNDARAM
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