PHYSIOLOGICAL, BIOCHEMICAL AND SUBJECTIVE PARAMETERS IN ANXIETY PATIENTS WITH PANIC DISORDER DURING STRESS EXPOSURE AS COMPARED WITH HEALTHY CONTROLS

Physiological (heart rate, blood pressure, electrodermal activity), bi ochemical (epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol) and subjective param eters (self-rating score) of 33 patients with panic disorder (diagnose s according to DSM-III-R) before, during and after stress exposure wer e compared with those of healthy controls. As stressors a video contai ning frightening scenes (FS), mental arithmetic (MA), a video document ing a patient suffering from a panic attack (PA) and an improvised spe ech (IS) were applied. We found significantly higher baseline levels o f electrodermal activity (EDA) and norepinephrine (NE) secretion and a subsequent further increase during stress exposure in panic disorder patients as compared with normal controls. The most potent stressors d uring the trial proved to be mental arithmetics and improvised speech, which was evident in both groups. The situation panic attack video ap peared to be a ''panic disorder patient-specific'' stressor; here we n oticed the most pronounced reactions in the patient group. Panic disor der patients had significantly higher self-rating scores of the parame ters panicky feelings, anxiety and nervousness at the beginning and th roughout the investigation. We conclude that panic disorder patients h ave a higher degree of activation compared with normal controls, which is evident regarding levels of electrodermal activity and norepinephr ine secretion. Furthermore, the panic attack video appears to be a pan ic disorder patient-specific stressor.