Faiq Shaban, Mousa A. Al Doughmi. Clinical characteristics of a group of patients with panic disorders in jordan

Abstract EN

Objective: To study the clinical characteristics of panic disorders in Jordan.

Method: This study was conducted during the whole year of 2000; it included all psychiatric patients who met (DSM -IV) criteria for panic disorders.

A total of 96 patients were studied.

A semi structure interview was used.

Results: Panic disorder is commoner among females (62) than males (34) with F: M ratio of 1.8:1, and a mean age of 26.7 years (SD=5.7) for males and 28.7 years (SD=6.4) for females.

The mean duration of illness was 16.06 months (SD=9.9).

The source of referral was as follows; self-referral (57.3%), emergency room (25%), specialty clinic (13.5%) and general practitioners (4.2%).

Twenty-four females versus 6 males had depression (P=<0.033) and 19 females versus 3 males had agoraphobia (P=<0.015), the rate of social phobia, specific phobia and suicidal attempt were [(11.5%), (14.6%) and (4.2%) respectively].

Thirteen patients (13.5%) had non-fearful panic attacks, the commonest fears among the rest were fear of fainting (26) patients, followed by fear of dying (23) patients, fear of madness (20) patients and fear of losing control (14) patients.

Almost all patients had multiple previous medical visits.

Conclusion: Panic disorder is a common condition that imposes a burden on those with the disorder and presents a challenge to the medical care system, it is under-diagnosed, and under-treated in primary medical settings, there are high health resources expenditure that lead to serious economic consequences which highlight the importance of improving physician recognition of this disorder.