Introduction
These are the approved guidelines published by the South African Society of Psychiatrists to provide an overview on treatment and management of commonly diagnosed psychiatric illnesses. The guidelines include consensus recommendations, based on peer contribution and using the international evidence based guidelines that are suitable for the local South African health service.
Please note that parts of this guideline may be out of date, an update will be published as soon as it is available.
Panic disorder (PD) is a prevalent anxiety disorder with lifetime prevalence rates ranging from 1.1% to 3.7% in the general population and 3.0% to 8.3% in clinic settings.[1] The presence of agoraphobia inpatients with PD is associated with substantial severity, comorbidity (e.g. major depression, other anxiety disorders, alcohol abuse) and functional impairment.[1] The disorder is more common in women than in men, with a 3:1 ratio in patients with agoraphobia and 2:1 in patients without agoraphobia. While panic attacks are a core feature of PD, panic attacks are also experienced by patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias. However, unlike in PD, these are typically cued by exposure to or anticipation of specific anxiety-provoking situations.[2]