Laboratory provocation tests help explain the biology of panic disorder. Infusion of sodium lactate or inhalation of 35 percent carbon dioxide characteristically triggers panic attacks in which group?
- A Patients with panic disorder far more often than controls or patients with other anxiety disorders ✓
- B Healthy volunteers and patients with panic disorder equally
- C Patients with generalised anxiety disorder but not panic disorder
- D Only patients who also carry a diagnosis of major depression
Correct answer: A. Patients with panic disorder far more often than controls or patients with other anxiety disorders
Explanation
Panic disorder patients show marked sensitivity to panicogenic agents such as sodium lactate, carbon dioxide inhalation, yohimbine, and caffeine, while healthy controls and patients with GAD or other anxiety disorders respond far less often. This supports Klein's false suffocation alarm hypothesis, in which the panic patient's brain misinterprets normal respiratory or physiological signals as impending suffocation.
Reference: Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, 12th ed.
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