Related Experiment Videos
Discrimination between panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder by 35% carbon dioxide challenge
1Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, State University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Objective:
The authors' goal was to determine whether 35% carbon dioxide (CO2) challenge would discriminate between patients with panic disorder and patients with other anxiety disorders.
Method:
Nine patients with panic disorder and nine with generalized anxiety disorder underwent the 35% CO2 challenge.
Results:
Patients with panic disorder experienced a significantly stronger increase in subjective anxiety than patients with generalized anxiety disorder. However, increases in panic symptom scores were high in both groups.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that a large increase in subjective anxiety due to the CO2 challenge is specific for patients with panic disorder but that an increase in panic symptoms is not.