Respiratory Distress during Panic Attacks Associated with Agoraphobia

Abstract

59 patients with agoraphobia and panic attacks completed check lists of physical and cognitive panic-related symptoms to estimate the extent to which respiratory distress is associated with panic. Over half of the patients reported experiencing difficulty breathing during most or all panic attacks, but respiratory difficulty was not consistently associated with panic. Further research is needed using alternative methods of assessment, but these findings suggest that biologically oriented explanations of panic which ascribe a precipitative role to respiratory dysfunction cannot account for many of the panic attacks experienced by agoraphobics.