Panic Disorder and Regulation of Carbon Dioxide: A Literature Review

Abstract

Panic disorder is the most popular mental disorder in the world, and it has already been studied by a lot of people in the research field. The feeling of panic has evolved when people are in danger, so the panic disorder can be related to respiration and learned fear. During the panic attacks, some patients may have a sense of shortness of breath and the one of the therapeutic methods of treating panic disorder is breathing training as well. Breathing training is related to the hyperventilation after the panic attacks occur, which is related to the false suffocation alarm theory proposed by Klein. Several studies have been published to describe the relationship between panic disorder and the false suffocation alarm system. However, the mechanism which is acid-sensitive ion channels (ASICs) behind the false suffocation alarm has not been sufficiently researched yet. This literature review found out that panic disorder is closely related to respiratory system in human body and acid-sensitive ion channels have a pivotal role in detecting carbon dioxide concentration and pH level in human. The fear conditioning related to panic disorder and breathing of carbon dioxide is also discussed in this literature review. The researcher can consider the treatment of acid-sensitive ion channels for patients with panic disorder.