Carbon dioxide induced panic attacks and short term clonazepam treatment: preliminary study

AIMS: 1. To verify the sensibility of panic patients to a mixture of 35% CO2 and 65% O2. 2. To determine if a ten days treatment with clonazepam attenuates the panic attacks induced by the inhalation of 35% carbon dioxide in panic disorder. METHOD: We randomly selected six panic disorder subjects, u...

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Main Authors: ANTONIO EGIDIO NARDI, ALEXANDRE M. VALENÇA, WALTER ZIN, ISABELLA NASCIMENTO
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Thieme Revinter Publicações 1999-06-01
Series:Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria
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Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X1999000300003&tlng=en
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author ANTONIO EGIDIO NARDI
ALEXANDRE M. VALENÇA
WALTER ZIN
ISABELLA NASCIMENTO
author_facet ANTONIO EGIDIO NARDI
ALEXANDRE M. VALENÇA
WALTER ZIN
ISABELLA NASCIMENTO
author_sort ANTONIO EGIDIO NARDI
collection DOAJ
description AIMS: 1. To verify the sensibility of panic patients to a mixture of 35% CO2 and 65% O2. 2. To determine if a ten days treatment with clonazepam attenuates the panic attacks induced by the inhalation of 35% carbon dioxide in panic disorder. METHOD: We randomly selected six panic disorder subjects, using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. All subjects went double-blindly through an inhalation of 35% CO2 and compressed gas (atmospheric air) on two occasions. First, at baseline, when they were drug free. Second, after a 10 days clonazepam treatment. RESULTS: Neither at baseline nor after treatment any patient had a panic attack during compressed gas inhalation. At the first test five patients (83.3%) had a severe panic attack with high levels of subjective anxiety during carbon dioxide inhalation. After 9.6 (± 3.4) days of clonazepam treatment, only two (33.3%) patients experienced a mild panic attack. CONCLUSION: This pilot study suggests the efficacy of the short term clonazepam therapy in attenuating panic attacks and supports the usefulness of the 35% carbon dioxide challenge test as an analogue method for study the efficacy of anti-panic drugs. Further placebo-controlled studies to pharmacological treatment are warranted.
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spelling doaj-art-0183523f7e93474a9815ef575f7b29e12025-08-20T02:03:24ZengThieme Revinter PublicaçõesArquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria1678-42271999-06-01572B361365Carbon dioxide induced panic attacks and short term clonazepam treatment: preliminary studyANTONIO EGIDIO NARDI0ALEXANDRE M. VALENÇA1WALTER ZIN2ISABELLA NASCIMENTO3Federal University of Rio de JaneiroFederal University of Rio de JaneiroFederal University of Rio de JaneiroFederal University of Rio de JaneiroAIMS: 1. To verify the sensibility of panic patients to a mixture of 35% CO2 and 65% O2. 2. To determine if a ten days treatment with clonazepam attenuates the panic attacks induced by the inhalation of 35% carbon dioxide in panic disorder. METHOD: We randomly selected six panic disorder subjects, using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. All subjects went double-blindly through an inhalation of 35% CO2 and compressed gas (atmospheric air) on two occasions. First, at baseline, when they were drug free. Second, after a 10 days clonazepam treatment. RESULTS: Neither at baseline nor after treatment any patient had a panic attack during compressed gas inhalation. At the first test five patients (83.3%) had a severe panic attack with high levels of subjective anxiety during carbon dioxide inhalation. After 9.6 (± 3.4) days of clonazepam treatment, only two (33.3%) patients experienced a mild panic attack. CONCLUSION: This pilot study suggests the efficacy of the short term clonazepam therapy in attenuating panic attacks and supports the usefulness of the 35% carbon dioxide challenge test as an analogue method for study the efficacy of anti-panic drugs. Further placebo-controlled studies to pharmacological treatment are warranted.http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X1999000300003&tlng=enpanic attackspanic disorderclonazepamcarbon dioxide
spellingShingle ANTONIO EGIDIO NARDI
ALEXANDRE M. VALENÇA
WALTER ZIN
ISABELLA NASCIMENTO
Carbon dioxide induced panic attacks and short term clonazepam treatment: preliminary study
Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria
panic attacks
panic disorder
clonazepam
carbon dioxide
title Carbon dioxide induced panic attacks and short term clonazepam treatment: preliminary study
title_full Carbon dioxide induced panic attacks and short term clonazepam treatment: preliminary study
title_fullStr Carbon dioxide induced panic attacks and short term clonazepam treatment: preliminary study
title_full_unstemmed Carbon dioxide induced panic attacks and short term clonazepam treatment: preliminary study
title_short Carbon dioxide induced panic attacks and short term clonazepam treatment: preliminary study
title_sort carbon dioxide induced panic attacks and short term clonazepam treatment preliminary study
topic panic attacks
panic disorder
clonazepam
carbon dioxide
url http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X1999000300003&tlng=en
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AT walterzin carbondioxideinducedpanicattacksandshorttermclonazepamtreatmentpreliminarystudy
AT isabellanascimento carbondioxideinducedpanicattacksandshorttermclonazepamtreatmentpreliminarystudy