A study of phenomenology of panic disorder & assessment of severity & comorbidity of panic disorder.

ABSTRACT

Background: Panic disorder with or without agoraphobia is one of the common anxiety disorder. Panic disorder patient seeking medical help with different presenting complains & many patients also suffer from other anxiety / psychiatric or substance use disorders. Objectives: Study sociodemographic characteristics, phenomenology, and assessment of co morbidity and severity of Panic disorder. Material & methods: This is a cross sectional study conducted using DSM-IV-TR criteria for the Panic disorder. Then the patients with the diagnosis of Panic disorder were subjected to 7-item Panic Disorder severity scale (PDSS) for assessing the severity of panic disorder. Evaluated clinically for having agoraphobia or not. Particular attention was paid to check whether patients having any co morbid psychiatric illness. Result: Majority of patients 65% were female, 52.5% were in age group of 15-24 years & mean age of patients was 23.82 years . Mean age of onset of symptoms of Panic disorder was 21.3 years. Most common substance use tobacco in 30% of patients. Most common co morbidity was Major Depressive Disorder in 40% of patients. Agoraphobia was present in 24(60%) patients. Mean duration of PA was 22.37 minutes. 60% had PD moderate. symptoms pattern majority patients 67.5% had Cardio Vascular System (CVS) symptoms. Conclusion: Panic disorder commonly seen in age group 15 – 24 years . Commonly presenting symptoms are CVS related need caution to differentiate. High rate of co morbid substance use & psychiatric illness need attention in Panic disorder patients.