A panic attack is an anxiety disorder in which you are suddenly and regularly affected by a feeling of panic or fear.

Almost everyone can experience feelings of anxiety and panic at certain times. This feeling is a natural response to tense, stressful or dangerous situations.

Panic Attack

But for a person suffering from panic attack disorder, feelings of anxiety, worry, panic, and stress occur both regularly and often for no apparent reason.

Panic Disorder is a mental disorder associated with panic attacks. Unexpectedly recurrent panic attacks are observed as anxiety caused by the expectation of these attacks to occur, and difficulty in adapting to the natural flow of life due to the anxiety of dying or being harmed due to the symptoms that occur during the panic attack.

Panic Attack in Children

Panic disorder is more common in adolescents and teenagers than in young children. However, coping with a panic attack can be a difficult experience, especially for children and teenagers.

Severe panic disorder can affect their development and learning. Children showing panic attack symptoms should definitely be taken to a doctor.

The physician will review the child's medical history and perform a thorough physical examination to see if there are any physical causes for the symptoms.

Screening for other anxiety disorders may also be required to help determine what is causing panic attacks in children, so after a general physical examination, referral to an appropriate specialist for further evaluation and treatment, if necessary, will be made.

Reasons

What are the Causes of Panic Attacks?

As with many other mental disorders, the exact cause of a panic attack is not fully understood. However, the condition is thought to be possibly related to a traumatic or very stressful period in life such as bereavement, or to neurotransmitter imbalance in the brain or similar factors.

Symptoms

During a panic attack, the person experiences various physical and mental symptoms as well as anxiety. These symptoms can appear for no apparent reason and can appear quite quickly. A panic attack can be a very frightening and stressful situation for the person.


Panic attack symptoms include the symptoms listed below.

Sudden need for toilet

hot flashes,

dizziness,

Don't feel faint

choking feeling,

A sense of dread or fear of dying

General Tremor,

chest pain,

rapid heartbeat,

ringing in the ears,

dry mouth,

Nausea,

Shortness of breath,

tingling in fingers,

Sweating,

cold,

numbness or pins and needles sensation,

Feeling disconnected from the body.

At least four of the above symptoms are observed simultaneously in a panic attack. Situations where less is observed are called restricted panic attacks. Although panic attacks usually last between 5 and 20 minutes, cases where it lasted up to an hour have been observed.


The number of panic attacks may vary depending on the severity of the situation. While some individuals are exposed to this situation once a month, other individuals may have panic attacks several times a week.


Although panic attacks are scary, they are not dangerous. The symptoms seen do not directly harm the person. At the same time, many of these symptoms can easily be caused by other conditions. For example, low blood pressure can cause the heartbeat to speed up.


Diagnostic Methods

Panic Attack Diagnosis

The diagnosis of panic attack can only be made by a psychologist who is an expert in his field. First of all, the patient's medical history is taken and necessary physical examinations are performed. There is no direct laboratory test to diagnose a panic attack. However, physicians may order some tests to find out whether the attacks are caused by another underlying disease or a panic attack.

Especially the frequency of attacks, whether you experience shortness of breath, symptoms such as dizziness, numbness or sweating are very important in terms of diagnosis.

In order to clarify the diagnosis of panic attack and to rule out other diseases, a heart (ECG) may be requested first. It is investigated whether the palpitations occur as a result of a different heart disease. Afterwards, some blood tests may be requested by the physician to measure the level of thyroid hormones and whether there is a hormonal imbalance.