Clinical and subthreshold panic disorder

Summary & key facts

This study reports that both full panic disorder (PD) and milder, “subthreshold” panic are linked with other mental health problems, trouble at work, and high use of health services. The authors used data from a large U.S. household survey to compare people with PD and varying levels of panic symptoms. They found many people with panic symptoms also had conditions like depression or generalized anxiety, and that panic is tied to more emergency visits, missed work, and higher medical costs. The paper says more research is needed to understand how subthreshold panic affects quality of life over time.

Key facts:

• Panic disorder (PD) is estimated to affect more than 6 million Americans.
• Lifetime prevalence of PD in the general population is about 1–3%.
• In clinical settings, 3.0–8.3% of patients meet criteria for current PD.
• As many as 80% of people with PD have at least one other psychiatric diagnosis.
• Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the most common comorbid condition in PD, affecting between 32% and 70% of people with PD.
• Nearly 42% of patients with PD had comorbid generalized anxiety disorder in one cited study.
• Bipolar disorder was reported to be eight times more common among people with panic attacks than among those without panic attacks (as reported in cited research).
• The National Comorbidity Survey reported suicide-attempt prevalence of 5.2% for PD cases, 16% for people with depression, and 25% for people with both PD and depression.
• People with untreated PD missed an average of 12 work days per year, compared to 5.2 days missed by the general U.S. population (reported in cited studies).
• One study cited found about 25% unemployment in PD populations and another reported only 57% of PD sufferers employed full time.

Abstract

Psychiatric comorbidities and health-care utilization are common among patients with subthreshold panic. The relationship between varying degrees of panic symptomology and other mental health problems and indices of functioning impairment warrants further investigation. These results inform further research focusing on the course of subthreshold PD and its impact on quality of life.

Topics

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Mental Health Research Topics Mental Health Treatment and Access

Categories

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Anxiety Clinical psychology Comorbidity Depression (economics) Economics Environmental health Macroeconomics Medicine Mental health National Comorbidity Survey Panic Panic disorder Physics Population Psychiatry Psychology Quantum mechanics Subthreshold conduction Transistor Voltage