Am J Psychiatry 1995; 152:1678-1680
Copyright © 1995 by American Psychiatric Association
Does ischemia occur with panic attacks?
DW Lint, CB Taylor, L Fried-Behar and J Kenardy
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA 94305-5542, USA.
OBJECTIVE: The authors examined ambulatory ECG changes during panic attacks
in patients with panic disorder. METHOD: Ten otherwise healthy women with
panic disorder and complaints of chest pain during panic attacks underwent
a symptom-limited exercise test on a treadmill and then wore an ambulatory
ECG monitor with software designed to detect and record ischemic events and
used a hand-held computer for up to 6 days. RESULTS: Eight of the women had
panic attacks while using the hand-held computer and the ECG monitor. No
ischemic events occurred during any of the exercise tests. Twelve
tachycardiac events occurred during panic attacks and 84 tachycardiac
events occurred that were not associated with panic attacks. Panic attacks
were associated with significantly more symptoms than were tachycardiac
episodes. CONCLUSIONS: In this group of otherwise healthy women with panic
disorder and chest pain, ambulatory ischemic changes were not recorded
during panic attacks.
