Reliving and disorganization in posttraumatic stress disorder and panic disorder memories

J Nerv Ment Dis. 2009 Aug;197(8):627-30. doi: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e3181b08bdf.

Abstract

Intense, disorganized recollections are one of the core symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and considered to be the result of inadequate processing of trauma information. A first panic attack resembles trauma in being an unexpected frightening and subjectively life-threatening event, and like PTSD, panic disorder with agoraphobia also involves fear conditioning after the first event. Therefore, a panic attack may be processed similarly to a trauma, and as a result, memories of a panic attack may share characteristics like reliving and disorganization with PTSD trauma memories. To test this hypothesis, scripts of PTSD trauma memories (n = 21) were compared with scripts of panic disorder with agoraphobia panic memories (n = 25) using a narrative rating scale. No differences were found between reliving intensity and disorganization levels in the scripts of both patient groups. The results suggest a panic attack may affect information processing similarly to a traumatic event.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Agoraphobia / diagnosis
  • Agoraphobia / psychology
  • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Life Change Events
  • Male
  • Mental Recall*
  • Panic Disorder / diagnosis
  • Panic Disorder / psychology*
  • Personality Inventory
  • Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
  • Psychometrics
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / diagnosis
  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / psychology*
  • Stress, Psychological / diagnosis
  • Stress, Psychological / psychology
  • Survivors / psychology