The Neurobiology of Panic: A Chronic Stress Disorder

摘要

Panic disorder is an often chronic and impairing human anxiety syndrome, whichfrequently results in serious psychiatric and medical comorbidities. Although,to date, there have been many advances in the diagnosis and treatment of panicdisorder, its pathophysiology still remains to be elucidated. In this review,recent evidence for a neurobiological basis of panic disorder is reviewed withparticular attention to risk factors such as genetic vulnerability, chronicstress, and temperament. In addition, neuroimaging data are reviewed whichprovides support for the concept of panic disorder as a fear network disorder.The potential impact of the National Institute of Mental Health Research DomainCriteria constructs of acute and chronic threats responses and theirimplications for the neurobiology of panic disorder are also discussed.