Panic relapse gives a warning two months ahead

A panic relapse seems to come without warning. Could you see it coming? There is research that says you can.

Written by the author in Korean. This English version was translated with AI assistance.

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According to research, a panic relapse has already begun about two months before the attack arrives.

So what gave the relapse away in advance? It wasn't panic symptoms.

Researchers followed patients who had improved on medication and then stopped it. In the two months before a relapse, anxiety and worry kept growing. Everything became something to worry about. People grew more fearful for no clear reason. And work and housework became harder and harder to manage.

This is what it looks like when the residual symptoms of panic disorder fill back up.

From these changes alone, relapse could be predicted for about eight people in ten.

The problem is that the person living through it rarely notices. It changes only a little, day by day.

That is why you have to look at a record, not a feeling. There is an app built to record how you are each day, so you can see the course of your panic and anxiety. It's called MiraCare.

About the study — 47 patients who had improved on medication and were then switched to placebo were followed; 15 relapsed. Generalized anxiety, fearfulness, and difficulty at work and at home predicted relapse better than measures of panic or anxiety sensitivity. The change in any one of these alone classified relapse correctly for 78.7–84.4% of patients. It is a small study, so don't use it to judge any one person's risk.

References

  1. Mavissakalian MR, Guo S. Early detection of relapse in panic disorder. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 2004;110(5):393–399. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.2004.00374.x