What Causes Panic Disorder?

Researchers are still working to discover what exactly causes of panic disorder. Most likely these causes are very complex. However, current research leads us to believe that there are many contributing factors including heredity/genetics, brain and other biochemical functioning, stressful life events, and cognitive factors (including a tendency to overreact to normal bodily sensations) that can contribute to someone having panic disorder.

Heredity/Genetics.
Panic disorder runs in families. One research study has shown that if one identical twin has panic disorder, it’s likely that the other twin will also have the disorder.

Fraternal, or non-identical twin pairs, do not show this high degree of "concordance" for panic disorder. This tells researchers that it may be a genetic factor (since identical twins have the same genes) in combination with environment that people live in.

Brain and Other Biochemical Abnormalities.
Some evidence suggests that panic disorder may be associated with increased activity in the parts of the brain that monitor a stimulus and control the brain’s responses to it: the hippocampus and locus coeruleus.

It has also been shown that panic disorder patients have increased activity in a portion of the nervous system called the adrenergic system. The adrenergic system regulates some of the body’s functions - like heart rate and body temperature. However, we still don’t know whether these increases reflect the anxiety symptoms, or whether they cause them.

Another group of studies suggests that people with panic disorder may have abnormalities in their benzodiazepine receptors, parts of the brain that react with anxiety-reducing substances.

In conducting their research, scientists can use several different techniques to cause (or induce) panic attacks in people who have the disorder. The best known method is intravenous administration (a shot) of sodium lactate - the same chemical that normally builds up in the muscles during heavy exercise.

Other substances that can trigger panic attacks in susceptible people include caffeine (usually 5 or more cups of coffee are required). Hyperventilation and breathing air with a higher-than-usual level of carbon dioxide can also trigger panic attacks in people with panic disorder.

These provocations usually do not trigger panic attacks in people who do not have panic disorder so scientists think that people with panic disorder may be biologically different in some way from people who don’t have the disorder.

However, it’s also true that when the people prone to panic attacks are told in advance about the sensations these provocations will cause, they’re usually much less likely to panic. This leads us to believe that there’s a strong psychological component, as well as a biological one, to panic disorder.

Cognitive Factors
Scientists are currently investigating the basic thought processes and emotions that happen during a panic attack and those that contribute to the development of agoraphobia.

So what does all of this mean for you? To find out if you may have the symptoms of panic disorder, please read on.