Panic Attacks: Brain Affects & Neuroscientific Explanation

[Gliese123]

Hi all PF members! I've been bothered for many years by Panic attacks. It started when I was 15 and now I'm 17. Personally for me, the attacks occurs at evening and night but are common at the day, the attacks contains: intense death anxiety and hallucination. I've read about it and it seems very common. I already know different factors that can accelerate this sympton but what I wondering is: What part of the brain is affected by this attacks and how can it be described in a neuroscientific way?

 

[ImperialX]

I don't know how you came to the conclusion that Panic Attacks are 'common'. They're not. Are you receiving professional treatment? Because if you're not I suggest you get to it.

The neuroscientific explanations for your symptoms are quite simple, really. Panic Attacks themselves are purely psychological, and most of the symptoms you experience such as hallucination, increased heartbeat (what you call "intense death anxiety") are responses of your Sympathetic nervous system to this psychological threat, shifting the bloodflow away from your brain to the more critical parts of your body for defense against an attack (which obviously isn't going to come). When the Panic Attack is over, the blood flow goes back to normal and your hallucinations disappear due to your brain becoming properly oxygenated.

 

[Gliese123]

I've looked up this with a doctor before and he said it wasn't any harmful. Yet, they keeps bother me. You said it wasn't common? Then these links tells the opposite:


I don't know if that's little. But it certainly indicates they exist. It's not a warning but it's not good... Anyway, thank you for the fact.

 

[lisab]

I don't know how you came to the conclusion that Panic Attacks are 'common'. They're not. Are you receiving professional treatment? Because if you're not I suggest you get to it.

The neuroscientific explanations for your symptoms are quite simple, really. Panic Attacks themselves are purely psychological, and most of the symptoms you experience such as hallucination, increased heartbeat (what you call "intense death anxiety") are responses of your Sympathetic nervous system to this psychological threat, shifting the bloodflow away from your brain to the more critical parts of your body for defense against an attack (which obviously isn't going to come). When the Panic Attack is over, the blood flow goes back to normal and your hallucinations disappear due to your brain becoming properly oxygenated.

As the links posted by Gliese123 suggest, panic attacks are actually fairly common. Someone close to me suffered from them, and her doctor's opinion of panic attacks differs from yours. The doc said they probably start with a disfunctioning amygdala.

The amygdala seems to respond to severe traumas with an un-erasable fear response... It seems to be genetically different and "wired" for a higher level of fear in some individuals, such as those with panic disorder.

http://www.psycheducation.org/emotion/amygdala.htm

 

[Gliese123]

Thank you Lisab. As you mentioned, it's fairly common. Unfortunately, medicines for this type of symptom, disorder (or whatever it's called) won't actually do so much, and I refuses to take any medicine with might have side effects...

 

[ViewsofMars]

Brief contribution to this topic.

1. Contact a Medical Professional - YOUR DOCTOR!

2. If you have post-traumatic stress disorder, one possible complication
could be panic attacks: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000925.htm

3. You can learn more about "Panic Disorder" from Medline Plus:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000924.htm

p.s. I should mention that I have a few friends that had panic attacks but no longer have them. They found out that too much caffeine and nicotine (cigarettes) was causing their problem.

 

[SW VandeCarr]

Hallucinations are not a part of the panic disorder syndrome. As already suggested: See a physician.

 

[Evo]

Hallucinations are not a part of the panic disorder syndrome. As already suggested: See a physician.

Exactly.

Here is the information you requested on the cause within the brain.

Thanks to ViewsofMars for the final version of the press release related to the above link. The first article's links to the pictures were broken.

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/science-news/2004/emotion-regulating-protein-lacking-in-panic-disorder.shtml