Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:947-950
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
Specificity of lactate infusions in social phobia versus panic disorders
MR Liebowitz, AJ Fyer, JM Gorman, D Dillon, S Davies, JM Stein, BS Cohen and DF Klein
Lactate infusions produced panic attacks in one of 15 patients with social
phobia, four of nine with agoraphobia, and 10 of 20 with panic disorder in
a blind study. The proportion of patients with social phobia who panicked
in response to lactate was significantly lower than that of patients with
agoraphobia or panic disorder. These findings lend validity to the DSM-III
classification of anxiety states. They also suggest that the
pathophysiology of social phobia differs from that of disorders
characterized by spontaneous panic attacks.
