A CASE OF PANIC DISORDER-INDUCED BY COMPLETE ISOLATION EXPERIMENT

A young previously healthy male student suddenly experienced a fear of incapability of breathing while waiting for release from an isolation chamber at the end of a circadian rhythm experiment. He has since man ifested recurrent episodes of panic disorder and has also shown slight depressive symptoms as an associated feature during the course of ill ness. Although it is not clear whether the disorder was induced by the 3 weeks of isolation, by the condition of living on his innate circad ian rhythm or some other factor, this case appears to offer an explana tion of the mechanism of panic disorder.