Panic attack disorder is a psychiatric disorder characterized by episodes of sudden and intense fear, anguish, and feeling of imminent death or strong fear for one’s safety, which leads those who experience them to want to flee and get away as quickly as possible from the place or situation they are in, despite the fact that these are absolutely common and harmless circumstances that would not justify such extreme reactions.
Panic episodes can occur in crowds, at the movie theater, at the supermarket, while driving a car or sitting in an armchair reading, or even while sleeping, causing abrupt and unpleasant awakenings for the person concerned and their partner.
Panic episodes of this type can be the sole expression of the disorder or be associated with agoraphobia (i.e., fear of open spaces), which makes the clinical picture more severe and the disorder more disabling and difficult to manage as the patient begins to dread leaving the house, going to work, etc.
Panic attack disorder predominantly exits between the ages of 20 and 30 (but also at other times of life); generally, the onset is not anticipated by signs of distress, but occurs suddenly, while one is performing completely common and habitual actions that had not previously caused problems or difficulties in coping.
A characteristic feature is that, in most cases, the attacks are triggered when the person is in places from which it is difficult to escape (in the car stuck in traffic, on an airplane, in an elevator, on the subway, etc.) or in which it might be difficult to receive timely help if needed (alone in isolated natural places, in a crowd at a concert, on an offshore sailboat).
