Understanding Panic and Other Anxiety Disorders
A patient’s guide to panic disorders, panic attacks, and other stress-related maladies
Description
Twenty years ago, panic disorder was often misunderstood and misdiagnosed. Its symptoms frequently mimicked non-psychiatric diseases, making it a mystery to both doctors and patients. Sufferers filled emergency rooms and doctors' offices and endured countless general examinations that revealed nothing.
In Understanding Panic and Other Anxiety Disorders, Benjamin Root, a practicing psychiatrist since 1986, gathers the very latest research and news on the newest pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments for panic disorder and many other related afflictions, such as social phobia and generalized anxiety disorders.
Much of what Root brings to the book are new findings and tested therapeutic techniques. The symptoms of panic disorder were long underreported, and doctors faced a diagnostic puzzle in working with the disease. The term “panic disorder” was not even in common discussion among psychiatrists until recently. Now a great number of medications have come to market to benefit those suffering from this debilitating condition.
Studies have revealed that panic disorder alone will affect up to 3.5 percent of the American population. This book is designed for people struggling to understand this highly prevalent disorder as well as other related syndromes.
Chapters cover the symptoms of panic disorder and related problems. Other chapters detail the behavior and effects of panic disorder and outline the latest treatments. The final chapters of the book explore the ongoing search for a more complete understanding and more consistent cures for anxiety syndromes. For both the afflicted and family members helping a patient recover and attain peace of mind, Understanding Panic and Other Anxiety Disorders provides a valuable sourcebook.
Reviews
"The latest entry in the practical and informative Understanding Health and Sickness Series clearly conveys patients’ and physicians’ feelings about its subject. The general public often attaches a stigma to persons suffering mental disorders. This can make individual patients’ lives much more difficult since they are likely to question themselves as well as the disorder. Root explains physical and mental problems that can mimic panic disorders and that the differentiating diagnosis in emergency room or clinic is often a major hurdle. The unpredictable nature of attacks in panic disorders and their frequent accompaniment, agoraphobia (fear of crowds or going into society), add to the anxiety involved. Root describes those likely to suffer from panic attacks, discusses drug and psychotherapy treatments, and includes a chapter on pertinent research projects now under way."
- William Beatty, Booklist