PMID: 11919361Mar 29, 2002Paper

Factors influencing care seeking for a self-defined worst panic attack

Psychiatric Services : a Journal of the American Psychiatric Association
D A Katerndahl

Abstract

Only 60 percent of persons who experience panic attacks seek treatment for them, many at the emergency department. The author documented care-seeking behaviors among persons living in the community who had experienced panic attacks and studied determinants of care seeking. In-depth structured interviews were conducted with 97 randomly selected community-dwelling adults who met DSM-III-R criteria for panic attacks. Participants were asked whether they had contemplated using or had actually used medical, alternative, and family sources of care when they had experienced their worst attack. Seventy-seven participants (79 percent) had considered using a general medical or mental health site when they experienced their worst attack. Of these, 50 (52 percent) had actually used such a site. General medical sites were contemplated more often (72 percent of participants) than mental health sites (27 percent), particularly emergency departments (43 percent) and family physicians' offices (34 percent). Other sources, such as friends or family members, alternative sites, and self-treatment, were contemplated less often. Once contemplated, certain sources were readily used, such as ambulances, family members, and self-treatment. Several fact...Continue Reading

Citations

Feb 5, 2010·The Psychiatric Quarterly·Mariko Chartier-OtisClaude Bélanger
May 23, 2013·Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences·Runar Vilhjalmsson, Gudrun Gudmundsdottir
Oct 16, 2007·The Journal of Emergency Medicine·Kim C ColeyAmy L Seybert

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Anxiety Disorders

Discover the latest research on anxiety disorders including agoraphobia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder here.