If you jump on the American Journal of Psychiatry website and perform a search for articles on panic disorder and/or panic attacks, you will be rewarded with over twenty-five thousand results.  That statistic says a lot about the prevalence of this disorder and how many people are seeking {panic attacks help.~The prevalence of the disorder and how widely it is studied is solidified by the number of people seeking panic attack relief.~That indicates that there is a high prevalence of this disorder, and says even more about how common it is and the number of people seeking help for panic attacks.~That statistic would suggest quite a bit about how widely the disorder is studied and the number of people seeking panic attack relief.}  In 1997, a Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS) was developed by M. Katherine Shear, M.D., of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and can be administered by a clinician in five to ten minutes.  The scale measures seven different factors:  panic frequency; distress during panic; panic-focused anticipatory anxiety; phobic avoidance of situations; phobic avoidance of physical sensations; impairment in work functioning; and impairment in social functioning, and in the medical community, the PDSS is widely used as the first step to determine how to stop panic attacks for individual patients.

People who have experienced, and continue to experience panic attacks, will recognize many of these factors as having a negative impact on their lives.  Simply undergoing the PDSS does not make one any less susceptible to panic attack symptoms, or the constant fear of suffering another attack.  In the following paragraphs, we will focus on how to stop panic attacks by using psychiatric and psychological treatment.

What Are Panic Attacks, Anyway?
What are panic attacks?  What causes them?  Why do medical professionals believe they occur?  The nucleus of panic disorder is a panic attack – an intensely frightening experience.  Choking or smothering sensations; fear of losing control, dying, or “going crazy”; feeling unsteady; feelings of nearly paralyzing terror; nausea or stomach pains; numbness or tingling in fingers or toes; shortness of breath; and sweating are all symptoms that people who are having a panic attack can experience.  It is easy, then, to see why many people present themselves to the emergency department believing they are suffering a heart attack, completely unaware that they are actually experiencing a panic attack.

Usually a person will have their first panic attack when they are between the ages of 25 and 30.  There are times when someone’s panic attack has been set off by a life-altering event such as divorce, the death of a loved one, or even the birth of a child or upcoming marriage, but is unfortunately mistaken for another condition.  When a panic attack is not immediately associated with its trigger, it can result in a delay in treatment  and make it difficult to determine the cause.

When a person believes that he or she can pinpoint their triggers, they may start to avoid certain things, which can lead to the development of phobia-type illnesses, including agoraphobia.  This cycle can become a slippery slope of sorts, growing worse and worse over time without treatment.  Once panic disorder is identified, it can be treated, and it is encouraging to know that right around 90% of sufferers end up living panic-free and healthy.

Two Types of Medical Treatment Options
Psychotherapy is generally the first option and it can come in a couple of different forms — Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Exposure Therapy.  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy starts by teaching a patient about their disorder, and how to learn to keep track of their episodes, which can help identify their personal triggers.  The patient will learn breathing techniques so that he or she is able to control the attacks they experience.  This method of therapy assumes that the patient controls their own thoughts, rather than any outside influences doing so, and seeks to teach the patient how to master their thoughts so that they are capable of overcoming the catastrophic feelings they may be having while suffering an attack.  panic attack relief.~In the medical community, this type of therapy is thought to be the quickest way to get help.~This therapy is regarded as the quickest way to get panic attacks help by the medical community.~The quickest way to get help for panic attacks is how the medical community regards this type of therapy.}

Exposure Therapy starts with CBT and builds on it by exposing the patient to situations that act as triggers for them.  Such triggers can be traumatic experiences that the patient has lived through, different situations, or memories and thoughts that sparks their attack.  This therapy starts out with the patient and therapist together trying to uncover the patient’s triggers.  This, obviously, is not always an easy thing to do.  After the trigger(s) has been identified, the next step is to have the patient face the very thing they fear, in small doses, until they can face it head-on.  The theory here is that facing the fear helps the patient to overcome it.

Drug Therapies
Many times therapy will be supplemented by medication that treats the symptoms and occurrences of attacks.  Tricyclic Antidepressants; Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs); Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs); and Benzodiazepines are the four main categories of drugs used for this purpose.

Antidepressants known as Tricyclic Antidepressants have over twenty side effects that include anything from dry mouth to irregular heartbeat and a breakdown of muscle tissue.  Highly toxic, these drugs are in the process of being replaced by SSRIs, described in the paragraph below.

Increasing serotonin levels in the body (to put it simply) are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors.  An organic compound, serotonin is a neurotransmitter that regulates mood; and there are around twenty-two side-effects of these drugs, ranging from headaches to renal or liver impairment and, most notably, decreased libido and erectile dysfunction.

Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors are prescribed primarily as antidepressants as well as smoking cessation aids.  These are seriously strong drugs and usually not used unless really indicated because of the way that they interact with many foods and other drugs (sometimes causing death).

The Drug Enforcement Agency classifies Benzodiazepines as depressants capable of causing amnesia, hostility, irritability and disturbing dreams, and can actually act as hypnotics in high doses.  Although the long-term effects should not be overlooked, these have been shown to help control panic attacks.

help.~Many people have found medications to be very effective in their efforts seek panic attacks help, despite the scary side-effects.~Despite the scary side-effects of drugs, there are a whole host of individuals who have found them to be especially effective in their quest for panic attack relief.~Yes, these are some pretty scary facts, but remember, too, that folks all over the world have found them to be invaluable in their efforts to get panic attack relief.}  Of vital importance before starting any course of therapy is to be informed, so do your homework, and never hesitate to raise questions with your doctor if he or she is ready to hand you a prescription.

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