Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:40-44
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Treatment of cocaine-induced panic disorder
AK Louie, RA Lannon and TA Ketter
Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco.
The authors describe 10 patients who developed panic attacks only after
substantial cocaine use. The timing of the onset of symptoms, i.e., after
1-6 years of cocaine use, and the fact that only one patient had a
first-degree relative with panic disorder were more suggestive of acquired
than primary panic disorder. The patients' atypical symptoms and responses
to medications may be explained in terms of limbic- neuronal
hyperexcitability induced by cocaine through a kindling mechanism.
