Am I Experiencing Panic Disorder?

Panic disorder is experienced by between 3 and 4 people out of every 100 at some point in their life (Kessler, Chiu, Jin, et al, 2006) but like many anxiety disorders, it is commonly under-diagnosed and often goes unrecognized (Kasper, 2006). 

The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for panic disorder include:

• Recurrent unexpected panic attacks where at least one of the attacks has been followed by one or both of the following for one month or more:
• Persistent concern or worry about additional panic attacks or their consequences (e.g. losing control, having a heart attack, “going crazy”)
• A significant maladaptive change in behavior related to the attacks (e.g. behaviors designed to avoid having panic attacks, such as avoidance of exercise or unfamiliar situations)

The ICD-11 diagnostic criteria for panic disorder include: 

• Recurrent panic attacks that are unassociated with a specific situation or object and often occur spontaneously (i.e. the episodes are unpredictable).
• The presence of at least some

Some people who describe symptoms like yours suffer from panic disorder. Would you like to try a short quiz that could give us an idea whether this is a problem that troubles you?

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).
• Kasper, S. (2006). Anxiety disorders: under-diagnosed and insufficiently treated. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 10(sup1), 3-9.
• Kessler, R. C., Chiu, W. T., Jin, R., Ruscio, A. M., Shear, K., & Walters, E. E. (2006). The epidemiology of panic attacks, panic disorder, and agoraphobia in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of general psychiatry, 63(4), 415-424.
• Stansfeld, S., Clark, C., Bebbington, P., King, M., Jenkins, R., & Hinchliffe, S. (2016). Chapter 2: Common mental disorders. In S. McManus, P. Bebbington, R. Jenkins, & T. Brugha (Eds.), Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. Leeds: NHS Digital. 
• World Health Organization. (2019). ICD-11: International classification of diseases (11th revision). Retrieved from https://icd.who.int/