Panic Disorders

Abstract

The overview article that follows reports the major ideas and data presented by the speakers and the symposium moderator, Richard I. Shader, MD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of the Tufts University School of Medicine and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the New England Medical Center. Donald F. Klein, MD, Director of Research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, gave an overview of the concepts and diagnosis of panic disorders. Lactate challenge testing, as it is currently being studied at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, was described by Michael R. Liebowitz, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Raymond R. Crowe, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa, outlined his and Dr. Russell Noyes' findings about the genetic aspects of panic disorders. David V. Sheehan, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medical Unit of the Massachusetts General Hospital, summarized the success and failure of various regimens used in their research protocols to treat panic disorders and also presented a tentative classification system for these disorders. He was followed by Bernard J. Carroll, MD, PhD, who compared the findings of the dexamethasone suppression test in anxious and depressed patients. Dr. Carroll is Professor of Psychiatry and Acting Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan. F. Andrew Gaffney, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center (Dallas), described the mitral valve prolapse syndrome and its relationship to panic disorders. The pharmacokinetics of psychotropic drugs were reviewed briefly by David J. Greenblatt, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine at the New England Medical Center.