Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0392680 (shortness of breath)
 5,217 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Panic disorder is a chronic and debilitating illness. In this article, we present an algorithm of the diagnosis and treatment of the illness. We place much importance upon the patient variables associated with the treatment decisions. We emphasize strong patient involvement in treatment as a way to become panic free and improve level of functioning. Panic disorder is defined in DSM-IV1 as "The presence of recurrent panic attacks followed by at least one month of persistent concern about having another panic attack, worry about the possible implications or consequences of the panic attack, or a significant behavioral change related to the attacks." A panic attack is defined as "a discrete period of intense fear or discomfort, in which four or more of the following symptoms developed abruptly and reached a peak within 10 minutes." 1) Palpitations, pounding heart or accelerated heart rate; 2) sweating; 3) trembling or shaking; 4) sensations of shortness of breath or smothering; 5) feeling of choking; 6) chest pain or discomfort; 7) nausea or abdominal distress; 8) feeling dizzy, unsteady, light-headed or faint; 9) derealization or depersonalization; 10) fear of losing control or going crazy; 11) fear of dying; 12) paresthesias; 13) chills or hot flashes. The following hypotheses have been used to conceptualize panic disorder from a psychiatrist's perspective.
 ...
PMID:Panic disorder: a different perspective. 949 26

To date, the quantitative psychopathology of panic disorder (PD) has been less well studied than that of other psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia or major depression. The aim of the present study was to assess the frequency and factorial grouping of symptoms in a naturalistic sample of PD patients. A total of 274 consecutive cases of PD who contacted an out-patient clinic in Barcelona, Spain were assessed by two experienced interviewers. The assessment instruments included the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Upjohn version (SCID-UP-R) and an inventory of panic attack symptoms based on DSM-III-R. Of the patients who presented at the unit during the assessment period, 8.5% presented with PD. Palpitations, shortness of breath, fear of dying and dizziness were the most frequent and intense symptoms reported by the PD patients. Principal-component analysis revealed four factors which accounted for 57% of the variance, including 'cardiorespiratory' (26.1%) and 'vestibular' (15.1%) factors, and two additional factors with mixed symptoms. The frequency of presentation of symptoms was similar to that reported in other studies. However, some discrepancies were observed that may be attributed to transcultural differences as well as to terminological problems and the range of symptoms assessed. These factors may also explain some of the differences found in factor analysis groupings in previous studies. Our findings support the symptom subtyping of PD.
 ...
PMID:Semiology and subtyping of panic disorders. 957 Apr 87

Disorders of the cardiovascular system are common. Heart pain is one of the most frequent complaints leading patients to seek medical help. Although psychologically conspicuous behaviour in patients with functional cardiac complaints are well known, they are--if at all--diagnosed quite late. Descriptive diagnostics of functional cardiac complaints according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10, Chapter 5) are discussed (Figure 1). Possible physical causes of the disease must first be excluded. In a second step it must be clarified whether the complaints even those non-verbally conveyed are due to psychic illness in a narrower sense. Anxiety and depressive disorders must be taken into consideration here. If the patient demonstrates an avoidance behavior in the case of anxiety, than an agoraphobia can be assumed; in episodic paroxysmal fear on can assume panic attacks in which vegetative anxiety equivalents such as shortness of breath, numbness, palpitation of the heart, tachycardia and chest pain are prominent often accompanied by trembling, perspiration, nausea and dizziness. The different depressive disorders are characterized by a dejected mood, loss of interest, loss of enthusiasm and drive reduction; the disorders are divided up according intensity and course. Within the scope of depressive physical symptoms, frequently unpleasant sensations and pain in the chest area are described along with concern, despair, and an increase in self-observation. If no psychic disturbance in a narrower sense can be diagnosed, then the diagnosis of a somatoform disorder allows for this behavior. It is characteristic for this category of illness that the repeated presentation of physical symptoms in connection with the persistent demand for medical treatment may be observed although no physical causes can be demonstrated. The patients insist that their complaints are of a physical origin despite the doctor's assertion that this is not the case. If the symptoms are related to vegetative innervated organs then one speaks of somatoform autonomous functional disorders (F45.3, Table 1). Cardiovascular disorders fall within this scope. Further diagnoses within the spectrum of somatoform disorders are hypochondric and somatization disorders which demonstrate a variety of symptoms and inconsistent and frequently changing complaints. If a descriptive diagnosis can correspondingly be made then further analysis of the disorder must be carried out in order to reach an indication for psychotherapeutic treatment. From a psychodynamic point of view, the personality- and conflict-related background of the disturbance is relevant. Quite often unconscious ambivalent separation conflicted--be they real are fantasized situations of being left or being left alone--may be observed to trigger cardiovascular symptoms. In the cognitive-behavioral therapeutic tradition an exact analysis of the patients symptomatology is carried out in which prior and actual cause factors of the symptoms are looked for. Irrespective of the different approaches, information on the context of the complaints both on a biological, intrapsychic and interpersonal level is necessary for psychosomatic diagnostics. The better the causal conditions are known on the basis of which functional cardiovascular complaints have arisen, the easier it is to recognize those factors that will influence a change and allow a therapeutic approach. This is best done in cooperation with practitioners and internists who still have a key position in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with functional cardiac disorders. The ways and means in which they conduct the anamnesis is decisive in leading their patients to regard psychosomatic diagnostics as being either stuck in the so-called "psycho corner" or as a helpful relationship which they can accept.
 ...
PMID:[Diagnosis of functional heart complaints from the psychosomatic viewpoint]. 1037 96

Cognitive theories of panic disorder suggest that the catastrophic misinterpretation of bodily sensations is the trigger for a panic attack. A challenge to cognitive theories is the suggestion that dyspnea (shortness of breath) is central to the development of panic and that negative cognitions are by-products of panic. To examine these seemingly contradictory theoretical perspectives, the present study investigated panic symptomatology in a sample of patients with chronic shortness of breath (i.e. pulmonary patients). Past studies have shown an increased prevalence of panic in pulmonary patients, a finding that may be useful in elucidating panic etiology. The current sample of pulmonary patients (N = 28) confirmed previous reports of high prevalence rates of panic in this population. Based on self-report of panic symptomatology, a total of nine patients (32%) met DSM-IV criteria that were consistent with panic disorder. Multivariate comparison of participants with and without panic symptomatology revealed that panickers had significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression and agoraphobic cognitions. However, these groups showed no significant differences on physiological measures of pulmonary functioning. The authors conclude that dyspnea alone is inadequate in predicting panic development. High levels of panic symptomatology in pulmonary samples may reflect increased opportunities for these patients to misinterpret bodily sensations and, in particular, their pulmonary symptoms.
 ...
PMID:The catastrophic misinterpretation of physiological distress. 1050 Mar 23

A young person presenting with shortness of breath is common to the accident and emergency department. Usually this hyperventilation is anxiety related or a panic attack, but sometimes it can be caused by a serious underlying condition like pulmonary embolus. Acute shortness of breath in any patient should never be dismissed lightly. It is important to realise that pulmonary embolus can present without chest pain and with shortness of breath as the major symptom. Such patients can be distinguished by close attention to history and examination, risk factors for thromboembolic disease and the use of basic investigations (electrocardiogram, chest radiography and arterial blood gas analysis). A serious cause for shortness of breath must be excluded before labelling it as "hysteria" or "panic".
 ...
PMID:Hyperventilation: cause or effect? 1100 17

We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesis that childhood instrumental and vicarious learning experiences influence frequency of panic attacks in young adulthood both directly, and indirectly through their effects on anxiety sensitivity (AS). A total of 478 university students participated in a retrospective assessment of their childhood learning experiences for arousal-reactive sensations (e.g., nausea, racing heart, shortness of breath, dizziness) and arousal-non-reactive sensations (i.e., colds, aches and pains, and rashes). SEM revealed that learning history for arousal-reactive somatic symptoms directly influenced both AS levels and panic frequency; AS directly influenced panic frequency; and learning history for arousal-non-reactive symptoms directly influenced AS but did not directly influence panic frequency. These results are consistent with the findings of previous retrospective studies on the learning history origins of AS and panic attacks, and provide the first empirical evidence of a partial mediation effect of AS in explaining the relation between childhood learning experiences and panic attacks in young adulthood. Implications for understanding the etiology of panic disorder are discussed.
 ...
PMID:Causal modeling of relations among learning history, anxiety sensitivity, and panic attacks. 1128 Mar 42

This article presents the results of a survey that investigated breathing-related symptoms of panic attacks together with the frequency of other symptoms reported by active panickers. All the participants of this study experienced naturally occurring panic attacks and sought treatment guidance by visiting a Web site devoted to the treatment of panic. The results of a symptom questionnaire showed that 195 respondents (95.1%) reported breathing changes during panic attacks, and remarkable dyspnea was reported by more than two thirds (68%) of respondents. These findings are consistent with earlier studies but are contrary to conclusions that only a small number of panickers report shortness of breath as a symptom. This study concludes that outside of the laboratory, a large majority of people who suffer from panic attacks experience symptoms of dyspnea.
 ...
PMID:Dyspnea during panic attacks. An Internet survey of incidences of changes in breathing. 1153 Jul 15

This study surveys Vietnamese refugees attending two psychiatric clinics to determine both the prevalence of panic disorder (PD) as well as panic attack subtypes in those suffering PD. A culturally valid adaptation of the SCID-panic module (the Vietnamese Panic Disorder Survey or VPDS) was administered to 100 Vietnamese refugees attending two psychiatric clinics. Utilizing culturally sensitive panic probes, the VPDS provides information regarding both the presence of PD and panic attack subtypes during the month prior to interview. Of 100 patients surveyed, 50 (50%) currently suffered PD. Among the 50 patients suffering PD, the most common panic attack subtypes during the previous month were the following: "orthostatic dizziness" (74% of the 50 panic disorder patients [PDPs]), headache (50% of PDPs), wind-induced/temperature-shift-induced (24% of PDPs), effort-induced (18% of PDPs), gastro-intestinal (16% of PDPs), micturition-induced (8% of PDPs), out-of-the-blue palpitations (24% of PDPs), and out-of-the-blue shortness of breath (16% of PDPs). Five mechanisms are adduced to account for this high PD prevalence as well as the specific profile of subtypes: 1) a trauma-caused panic attack diathesis; 2) trauma-event cues; 3) ethnic differences in physiology; 4) catastrophic cognitions generated by cultural syndromes; and 5) a modification of Clark's spiral of panic.
 ...
PMID:Panic disorder among Vietnamese refugees attending a psychiatric clinic: prevalence and subtypes. 1173 65

Since hyperventilation and shortness of breath are characteristic features of panic attacks, and since the attacks can be elicited by CO(2) inhalation, an involvement of central or peripheral chemoreceptors in the pathophysiology of panic disorder has been suggested. Prompted by clinical reports suggesting that the susceptibility to spontaneous as well as CO(2)-induced anxiety and hyperventilation is attenuated by serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs), we undertook the present study in order to explore the possible effect of an SRI, paroxetine, on baseline respiration and CO(2)-induced hyperventilation in freely moving Wistar rats. A significant increase in baseline respiratory rate was seen both after 5 and 15 weeks of treatment with paroxetine. CO(2) exposure induced a dose-dependent increase in respiratory rate, but not tidal volume, in both paroxetine-treated rats and controls; this response was reduced after 15 weeks of paroxetine treatment, but not after 5 weeks of treatment. We suggest that an influence on the regulation of respiration may be of importance for the anti-panic effect of SRIs.
 ...
PMID:Paroxetine influences respiration in rats: implications for the treatment of panic disorder. 1465 84

Our aim was to compare the clinical features of panic disorder (PD) patients sensitive to hyperventilation or breath-holding methods of inducing panic attacks. Eighty-five PD patients were submitted to both a hyperventilation challenge test and a breath-holding test. They were asked to hyperventilate (30 breaths/min) for 4 min and a week later to hold their breath for as long as possible, four times with a 2-min interval. Anxiety scales were applied before and after the tests. We selected the patients who responded with a panic attack to just one of the tests, i.e., those who had a panic attack after hyperventilating (HPA, N = 24, 16 females, 8 males, mean age +/- SD = 38.5 +/- 12.7 years) and those who had a panic attack after breath holding (BHPA, N = 20, 11 females, 9 males, mean age +/- SD = 42.1 +/- 10.6 years). Both groups had similar (chi(2) = 1.28, d.f. = 1, P = 0.672) respiratory symptoms (fear of dying, chest/pain discomfort, shortness of breath, paresthesias, and feelings of choking) during a panic attack. The criteria of Briggs et al. [British Journal of Psychiatry, 1993; 163: 201-209] for respiratory PD subtype were fulfilled by 18 (75.0%) HPA patients and by 14 (70.0%) BHPA patients. The HPA group had a later onset of the disease compared to BHPA patients (37.9 +/- 11.0 vs 21.3 +/- 12.9 years old, Mann-Whitney, P < 0.001), and had a higher family prevalence of PD (70.8 vs 25.0%, chi(2) = 19.65, d.f. = 1, P = 0.041). Our data suggest that these two groups--HPA and BHPA patients--may be specific subtypes of PD.
 ...
PMID:Clinical features of panic patients sensitive to hyperventilation or breath-holding methods for inducing panic attacks. 1476 81


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 Next >>