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What are some medical causes of panic symptoms?
Panic disorder is highly comorbid with psychiatric and medical disorders, and some disorders can directly mimic the symptoms of severe anxiety or a panic attack.
These medical panic mimics include
- hyperthyroidism,
- pulmonary embolism,
- asthma,
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
- obstructive sleep apnea (mimic of nocturnal panic),
- arrhythmias and mitral valve prolapse,
- pheochromocytoma (adrenaline and noradrenaline secreting tumor), and
- caffeine or other stimulant overuse.
Sources
- Welch CA: Electroconvulsive therapy. In Stern TA, Fava M, Wilens TE, Rosenbaum JF (eds): Massachusetts General Hospital comprehensive clinical psychiatry. London: Elsevier, 2016, pp 510-512.
- Yeung AS, Chang TE: Psychiatric epidemiology. In Stern TA, Fava M, Wilens TE, Rosenbaum JF (eds): Massachusetts General Hospital comprehensive clinical psychiatry. London: Elsevier, 2016, p 664.
- Schneier FR, Milrod B: Anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. In Gabbard GO (ed): Gabbard’s treatments of psychiatric disorders. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2014, pp 339-396.
- Schneier FR, Milrod B: Anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. In Gabbard GO (ed): Gabbard’s treatments of psychiatric disorders. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2014, pp 339-342.
- Stein MB, Yang CT, Campbell-Sills L: Panic disorder. In Gabbard GO (ed): Gabbard’s treatments of psychiatric disorders. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2014, p 346.
- Calkins AW, Bui E, Taylor CT, et al.: Anxiety disorders. In Stern TA, Fava M, Wilens TE, Rosenbaum JF (eds): Massachusetts General Hospital comprehensive clinical psychiatry. London: Elsevier, 2016, pp 353-358.
