Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Panic Disorder

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent and sudden minutes-long episodes of intense fear, known as panic attacks. These attacks may feel like heart attacks and often happen without warning or a specific cause. They can include symptoms such as rapid heart rate, shortness of breath, chest pain, trembling, sweating, dizziness, and a sense of helplessness. During a panic attack, individuals may feel as though they are experiencing a heart attack or are in a...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Links between personality functioning and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms: a network analysis.

European journal of psychotraumatology·2026

Same author

Effects on intrusive memories of playing Tetris with or without simultaneous and deliberate memory recall.

Journal of traumatic stress·2026

Same author

How personality functioning shapes symptom development during and after treatment: A random intercept cross lagged panel analysis.

Comprehensive psychiatry·2026

Same author

Long-Term Effectiveness of Inpatient and Day-Hospital Treatment of Eating Disorders in Departments of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy in Germany.

European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association·2026

Same author

A longitudinal bifactor approach to modelling somatic symptom development in psychosomatic treatment.

Journal of psychosomatic research·2026

Same author

Long-term effectiveness of inpatient and day hospital treatment in departments of psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy in Germany.

Frontiers in psychiatry·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 20, 2026

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Published on: July 31, 2016

Emotion recognition patterns in patients with panic disorder.

Henrik Kessler¹, Julia Roth, Joern von Wietersheim

¹University of Ulm, University Clinic of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Ulm, Germany. henrik.kessler@uniklinik-ulm.de

Depression and Anxiety

|September 16, 2006

Summary

Patients with panic disorder (PD) show deficits in facial emotion recognition, particularly for sadness and anger. Depressive symptoms, not anxiety, significantly impacted recognition accuracy in PD patients.

More Related Videos

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Published on: March 14, 2025

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation

Published on: August 26, 2011

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 20, 2026

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome

Published on: July 31, 2016

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Published on: March 14, 2025

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation

Published on: August 26, 2011

Area of Science:

Psychology
Neuroscience
Psychiatry

Background:

Facial emotion recognition is crucial for social interaction.
Deficits in emotion recognition are documented in social phobia, generalized anxiety disorders, and comorbid anxiety.
No prior studies have examined facial emotion recognition in panic disorder (PD).

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate facial emotion recognition patterns in patients with panic disorder (PD).
To identify specific deficits and error types in emotion recognition among PD patients.
To explore the influence of depression and anxiety symptoms on emotion recognition in PD.

Main Methods:

A group of 37 patients with PD (without agoraphobia or psychiatric comorbidity) was compared to 43 matched controls.
The FEEL Test (Facially Expressed Emotion Labeling) was used to assess emotion recognition.
Emotions assessed included fear, anger, sadness, happiness, and disgust.

Main Results:

Patients with PD demonstrated significantly poorer emotion recognition compared to controls.
Specific deficits were observed in recognizing sadness and anger.
PD patients exhibited a bias towards interpreting non-anger emotions as anger.
Depressive symptoms, more than anxiety symptoms, correlated with poorer emotion recognition in PD.
When controlling for depression, the recognition differences between PD patients and controls diminished.

Conclusions:

Panic disorder is associated with general deficits in facial emotion recognition, with specific impairments in recognizing sadness and anger.
A tendency to misinterpret emotions as anger was noted in PD patients.
Depression, rather than anxiety, appears to be a significant factor influencing emotion recognition deficits in PD, suggesting a potential overlap with emotion recognition deficits in depression.