If you think you have panic disorder, take the Anxiety Test and share the results with your family doctor. Since panic disorder can mimic a variety of medical conditions, such as heart problems and digestive complaints, the first thing you should do is have a full medical evaluation.

Although it is important for you and your doctor to concentrate on your physical symptoms, you should not overlook other aspects of your attacks. Before your appointment with your doctor you may want to re-read the results and tell your doctor anything you notice about how your attacks make you feel and when they usually occur.

Information on both the physical and emotional aspects of the attacks can be very useful to the doctor in making a diagnosis. For example, the doctor will want to know if your attacks, or fear of having attacks, keep you from carrying out any of your normal activities.

Many people with panic disorder also suffer from depression—feelings of intense sadness, even hopelessness. Depression is accompanied by an impaired ability to think, concentrate, and enjoy the normal pleasures of life. Be sure to make your doctor aware of these symptoms as well. If you have been drinking or using drugs to try to control your symptoms, let your doctor know about that too.

Once you have been properly diagnosed, your doctor—perhaps in consultation with a mental health specialist—can help you determine which treatment is best for you.

Before undergoing any treatment for panic disorder, you should undergo a thorough medical examination to rule out other possible causes of the distressing symptoms. This is necessary because a number of other conditions, such as excessive levels of thyroid hormone, certain types of epilepsy, or cardiac arrhythmias, which are disturbances in the rhythm of the heartbeat, can cause symptoms resembling those of panic disorder.