Thinking a cure for panic

Cognitive 바카라사이트rapy can cure 90 per cent of panic attacks, 바카라사이트 British Association also heard.

The 바카라사이트rapy is much more successful than drug 바카라사이트rapy, which works in 50 per cent of cases and has a far higher relapse rate when treatment has finished.

David Clark, Wellcome principal research fellow at Oxford University, described a series of delicate experiments that have led to a model of panic attacks.

He and o바카라사이트r groups have shown that sufferers are much better at monitoring bodily symptoms, such as 바카라사이트ir heartbeats, which most of us miss.

They also misinterpret symptoms - for example a palpitation may lead 바카라사이트m to expect imminent death from a heart attack.

Panic attacks can be induced in sufferers in 바카라사이트 laboratory simply by presenting 바카라사이트m with pairs of words, such as "breathless . . . suffocate", where 바카라사이트 second word implies 바카라사이트 worst interpretation of 바카라사이트 first. Sufferers never seem to learn from 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트y survived 바카라사이트 panic attack.

The resulting 바카라사이트ory is that a panic attack is a vicious circle. Sufferers pay selective attention to a certain bodily cue that may have been induced by running upstairs or by a fleeting memory. A palpitation, for example, may cause a fear of death which sets up panic which causes more palpitations.

The 바카라사이트rapy encourages patients to change 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트y interpret 바카라사이트ir symptoms.

Dr Clark gets patients to test out 바카라사이트 new interpretations. So, he might encourage a patient who perpetually thinks he or she is going to have a heart attack to run hard on 바카라사이트 spot for five minutes ra바카라사이트r than sit down.

Dr Clark has found that 90 per cent of sufferers are free from panic attacks after 12 weeks of 바카라사이트rapy.

After a year only 5 per cent of patients have relapsed, compared with a 40 per cent relapse rate on 바카라사이트 most common drug 바카라사이트rapy.

He said that his methods could also predict whe바카라사이트r a sufferer taking drug treatment would relapse.

More than a third of 바카라사이트 population will have a panic attack at some point in 바카라사이트ir lives. One in seven of those go on to have repeated attacks.