Am J Psychiatry 1992; 149:1306-1314
Copyright © 1992 by American Psychiatric Association
Panic disorder in children and adolescents: a review
D Moreau and MM Weissman
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY.
OBJECTIVE: Panic disorder has been considered an adulthood disorder that
does not occur in children or adolescents. The authors' goals were to
critically review the available evidence for panic attacks and/or panic
disorder in children and adolescents, to review the limited data on the
biological basis of panic disorder as it has been studied in children and
adolescents, to discuss the possible treatment approaches for panic
disorder in children, and to suggest potential opportunities for further
research on panic disorder in children. DATA COLLECTION: Sixty-three
articles pertaining to panic disorder in children and adolescents were
critically reviewed. These articles included retrospective histories of
adults with panic disorder, clinical case reports of children and
adolescents with panic disorder, studies of psychiatrically referred
children and adolescents, reports from epidemiologic community and school
samples of children and adolescents, studies of children and adolescents at
risk for psychiatric disorder, reports of panic-like symptoms in pediatric
patients, family studies of panic, studies of the biological basis of panic
in adults, and studies of treatment for panic. FINDINGS: There is strong
evidence that panic disorder occurs in children and adolescents and that
its clinical presentation in this population is similar to that found in
adults. CONCLUSIONS: Extending the many adult studies of panic disorder to
children and adolescents would be extremely fruitful. Like adults with
panic disorder, many children and adolescents are brought to emergency and
medical clinics for the physical symptoms of unrecognized panic disorder.
