[The psychoimmunological network og panic disorders, agoraphobia and allergic reactions]

While treating panic and agoraphobia patients with behaviour therapy, a high frequency of allergic reaction of the IgE-mediated type I was observed. Panic disorder, agoraphobia, allergic disorder, and vasomotor reactions are briefly discussed in the framework of psycho-endocrino-immunological research. A pilot study had shown a high correlation between panic disorder with and without agoraphobia and allergic reaction. A controlled study was then planned to test the hypothesized psychoimmunological relationship. 100 allergic patients, 79 panic/agoraphobic patients, and 66 controls underwent psychodiagnostic and allergic screening. 70% of the anxiety patients responded to test allergens with IgE-mediated type-I immediate reactions in comparison to 28% of the control persons. Another 15% of the panic patients reacted to nickle compound with type-IV delayed skin reactions (7% of the controls). Conversely, 10% of the allergic patients suffered from panic disorder (45% had experienced panic attacks) in contrast to 2% of the controls (24% of these reported panic attacks). The relative risk for allergic patients to develop panic disorder with and without agoraphobia is obviously five times as high as for controls. With this assumption of a psychoimmunological preparedness in mind, a behavioural medical diagnostic and therapeutic concept seems more adequate in coping both with panic/agoraphobia and allergic disorder.