Am J Psychiatry 1987; 144:788-791
Copyright © 1987 by American Psychiatric Association
Reduction of CO2-induced anxiety in patients with panic attacks after repeated CO2 exposure
MA van den Hout, GM van der Molen, E Griez, H Lousberg and A Nansen
The authors compared the subjective reaction of 13 panic patients and eight
control subjects to a 35% CO2 challenge, a treatment known to produce
physical symptoms comparable to those of natural or lactate- induced panic,
and to placebo treatment (inhalation of air). They found that patients had
higher placebo scores than control subjects, patients tended to get highly
anxious on CO2 and control subjects did not, and CO2-induced subjective
anxiety in patients decreased as the number of CO2-induced exposures to
interoceptive anxiety symptoms increased. The data support a behavioral
account of the effects of anxiogenics.
