Panic Disorder in Field Practice

Overview

Panic disorder belong into the group of anxiety disorders, its typical feature being panic attackscharacterized by a specific clinical picture and its temporal course is as a rule also uniformDespite this patients with panic disorders are not correctly diagnosed and thus not adequatelytreated. The authors submit the case-history of a 34-year old patient suffering from the atypicalform of a panic disorder with predominating somatic complaints which was subjected in thecourse of 5 months to tens of examinations and who was for 70 days on sick leave before hisdisorder was properly diagnosed and treated. In the discussion the authors deal with the causesof the incorrect diagnosis and treatment and offer expedient and rational algorithms of a correctmedical procedure.

Key words:
anxiety - panic disorder - panic attack - diagnosis - treatment - errors.