Panic Assessment Questionnaire

Why: to determine if acute or chronic.

Why: Panic is an intense fear or terror. As a symptom it usually refers to unreasonable fear often with the belief that "something bad is going to happen". A common symptom is the "desire to flee" which is the normal human flight-or-fight response related to the body's production of the hormone adrenaline in response to fear.

Why: would suggest a phobic disorder.

Why: e.g. ranging from 0-10 with 0 being "hardly at all" to 10 being "very severely troubled".

Why: would suggest phobic disorder.

Why: e.g. people who suffer from social phobia are often shy and self-conscious even before the fears first started.

Why: questions specifically about relationship, family, children, social support, occupation, general physical health and financial stresses. Stress related to lifestyle, especially marital and family disharmony may be associated with panic.

Why: e.g. certain slimming pills may cause or aggravate panic.

Why: e.g. anxiety, panic attacks, depression.

Why: Alcohol abuse and alcohol withdrawal may cause or aggravate panic.

Why: Panic may be associated with drug abuse e.g. amphetamine or marihuana intoxication may trigger a panic attack.

Why: e.g. sudden, unexpected, short-lived episodes of intense anxiety, shortness of breath, dizziness, palpitations, trembling, sweating, choking, nausea and fear of dying. May be followed by at least one month of persistent fear of having another attack, fear of going crazy or of doing something uncontrolled. There must be few symptoms of anxiety between the panic attacks, although anxiety in anticipation of further panic attacks is common.

Why: Panic attacks may sometimes, but not always lead to agoraphobic avoidance of situations in which escape may be difficult or embarrassing, or in which help may not be immediately available. Thus panic disorder may be classified as being with, or without agorophobia.

Why: e.g. excessive anxiety, fearful anticipation and worry about various life circumstances not related to a specific activity, time or event such as trauma, obsessions or phobias. Occasional panic attacks can also occur with an anxiety disorder.

Why: e.g. depressed mood, crying spells, anhedonia (loss of interest or pleasure), increase or decrease in appetite (usually decreased), weight loss or gain, insomnia or increased sleeping (usually early morning waking), fatigue, loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness, feelings of excessive guilt, poor concentration, difficulty making decisions, low libido, thoughts of death or suicide attempt. Occasional panic attacks can also occur in the context of a depressive disorder. In other cases depression may be secondary to a panic disorder (i.e. the experience of the panic disorder leads the person to become depressed).

Why: e.g. symptoms follow exposure to an unusual stress such as a battle, being attacked or raped or a natural disaster. Symptoms include recurrent and intrusive recollections of the stress, recurrent distressing dreams of the event, acting or feeling as if the event was recurring, intense distress on exposure to resembling events, persistent avoidance of events that symbolize or resemble the trauma, increased arousal symptoms such as insomnia, exaggerated startle response, poor concentration and moodiness.

Why: e.g. episodic periods of headache, feelings of fear, palpitations, sweating, nausea, tremor, weight loss.