Understanding Panic and Other Anxiety Disorders (Understanding Health and Sickness Series)

A patient's guide to panic disorder, panic attacks, and other stress-related maladies

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Twenty years ago panic disorder was often misunderstood and misdiagnosed. Its symptoms frequently mimicked non-psychiatric diseases, making it a mystery to both doctors and patients. Sufferers filled emergency rooms and doctors' offices and endured countless general examinations that revealed nothing.

In Understanding Panic and Other Anxiety Disorders, Benjamin Root, a practicing psychiatrist since 1986, gathers the very latest research and news on the newest pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments for panic disorder and many other related afflictions, such as social phobia and generalized anxiety disorders.

Much of what Root brings to the book are new findings and tested therapeutic techniques. The symptoms of panic disorder were long underreported and doctors faced a diagnostic puzzle in working with the disease. The term "panic disorder" was not even in common discussion among psychiatrists until recently. Now a great number of medications have come to market to benefit those suffering from this debilitating condition.

Studies have revealed that panic disorder alone will affect up to 3.5 percent of the American population. This book is designed for people struggling to understand this highly prevalent disorder as well as other related syndromes.

Chapters cover the symptoms of panic disorder and related problems. Other chapters detail the behavior and effects of panic disorder and outline the latest treatments. The final chapters of the book explore the ongoing search for a more complete understanding and more consistent cures for anxiety syndromes. For both the afflicted and family members helping a patient recover and attain peace of mind, Understanding Panic and Other Anxiety Disorders provides a valuable sourcebook.

Benjamin Root is in private practice at Mississippi Neuropsychiatric Clinic in Ridgeland, Mississippi, and is a clinical assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine.