Panic disorder and agoraphobia

Panic can be the result of a malfunctioning “alarm system,” and sometimes manifests as a panic attack. Although panic attacks have been linked to many psychiatric disorders, panic is most closely tied to panic disorder (PD) and agoraphobia (AG). The chapter presents three brief vignettes to illustrate some characteristic features seen in PD and AG. While recurrent and uncued spontaneous panic attacks are paramount to the diagnosis of PD and PD with AG, the presence of cued panic attacks is common in other anxiety disorders. The chapter reviews PD’s comorbidity with the Axis I (i.e., anxiety disorders, mood disorders, substance use disorders) and Axis II disorders (i.e., personality disorders). Cognitive models of panic and panic disorder generally focus on the relationship between fear and cognitive appraisal and parameters. The three most influential cognitive models of panic disorder include Barlow’s emotion-based model, Clark’s cognitive model, and Reiss’s expectancy model.