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Panic Disorder

An Overlapping or Independent Entity?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

A. Okasha ,
Z. Bishry ,
A. H. Khalil ,
T. A. Darwish ,
A. Seif El Dawla  and
A. Shohdy
A. Okasha*
Affiliation:
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Ain Shams University, 3 Shawarby Street, Kasr El Nil–Cairo, Egypt
Z. Bishry
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
A. H. Khalil
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
T. A. Darwish
Affiliation:
Kuwait Hospital for Psychological Medicine, Kuwait City, Kuwait
A. Seif El Dawla
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
A. Shohdy
Affiliation:
Okasha Hospital for Psychological Medicine
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

We compared three groups of patients with panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and major depressive episode with a control group. Methods of comparison included a clinical profile of the patients, assessed by the Arabic version of the Present State Examination (PSE), a psychological battery of tests measuring personality traits and depressive and anxiety states, and the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) as a biological marker. Our data showed that psychological assessment and DST did not significantly differentiate between the three disorders. Despite a symptom overlap between the disorders, however, some symptoms were associated significantly more often with one disorder than another. Patients with panic disorder differed from patients with major depressive episode in showing more situational, avoidance and free floating anxiety, and more anxious foreboding. They showed less self-negligence, ideas of guilt, early awakening and social withdrawal. Compared with patients with generalised anxiety disorder, patients with panic disorder showed more loss of interest and muscle tension and less anxious foreboding, restlessness, inefficient thinking, social withdrawal and delayed sleep. Our conclusion is that the clinical course and the symptom profile of panic disorder justifies its existence as an independent diagnostic category.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 164 , Issue 6 , June 1994 , pp. 818 - 825
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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