Study, 2001
Do women with PMDD panic as easily when breathing carbon dioxide as people with panic disorder?
Yes. Women with PMDD showed panic attacks when breathing carbon dioxide at rates similar to people with panic disorder, and higher than people without these conditions.
What they did
Researchers studied four groups: 50 people with panic disorder, 21 with depression, 10 with PMDD, and 34 normal people. All were asked to breathe in air with 5 percent or 7 percent carbon dioxide. A trained observer watched for panic attacks using standard criteria. Participants rated their anxiety on three scales before and after each test.
What they found
People with panic disorder had the highest rate of panic attacks when breathing carbon dioxide. Women with PMDD had panic rates similar to panic disorder and higher than normal people. Depressed people had panic rates similar to normal people. Seven percent carbon dioxide caused more panic than 5 percent. People who had panic attacks showed similar high anxiety ratings regardless of their diagnosis.
What it means for you
Women with PMDD may be very sensitive to carbon dioxide, similar to people with panic disorder. This suggests that PMDD might share some of the same panic sensitivity mechanisms as panic disorder. The PMDD group was small (10 women), so larger studies are needed to confirm if this applies to all women with PMDD.
10
Women with PMDD studied
50
People with panic disorder
34
Normal control subjects
About the study
- Original title
- Specificity of panic response to CO(2) inhalation in panic disorder: a comparison with major depression and premenstrual dysphoric disorder
- Authors
- Kent JM, Papp LA, Martinez JM et al.
- Journal
- The American journal of psychiatry
- Year
- 2001
- Study design
- Study
- Participants
- 50
- What was tested
- Breathing air with 5 percent or 7 percent carbon dioxide
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.158.1.58
Topics
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