Panic disorder and cigarette smoking behavior.

Smoking has been discussed both as a risk factor for panic disorder and as a contributing factor to elevated cardiovascular risk in panic disorder patients. Smoking habits and their association with panic disorder were studied in a sample of 102 panic disorder patients. Both for female and for male patients, rates of smokers and of exsmokers were substantially higher than in the general population. However, a surprisingly high number of patients had succeeded in reducing or quitting cigarette smoking because of their panic disorder, although they experienced little benefit in regard to panic symptoms from doing so. We conclude that the motivation for changing smoking habits is high in this population with elevated smoking prevalence and should be taken into consideration by therapists.