ASTHMA AND PANIC ATTACKS

Panic disorder (PD) and asthma share many common characteristics and h ave been found in epidemiological studies to be significantly comorbid . To investigate possible reasons for this overlapping, the authors ev aluated 51 patients with asthma, assessing the prevalence of PD and sp oradic panic attacks, the temporal relationship between these two diso rders, and the familial risk for PD in the families of asthmatics, The results showed significantly higher prevalences of PD, sporadic panic attacks, and social phobia in asthmatics than those reported for the general population. In 9 (90%) of the asthmatics with PD, asthma appea red first, Finally, the morbidity risk for PD in families of asthmatic s with PD (13.5%) was significantly higher than in families of asthmat ics without evidence of panic (2%), Our results suggest that the high prevalence of PD in asthmatics might be related to a facilitating effe ct of asthma on the development of PD in subjects with familial predis position to PD. (C) 1997 Society of Biological Psychiatry.