Diagnostic considerations in panic disorders.

Approaches to the classification and treatment of anxiety have been lacking because of the unclear borders between pathologic and normal anxiety and the heterogeneity of patients called "anxious." The differentiation of panic from other anxiety states is a recent development in psychiatric nosology. The diagnosis of panic disorder and agoraphobia and their demarcation from other psychiatric and medical disorders are reviewed. Proposals to revise DSM-III criteria to provide concordance with current etiologic theories are discussed, and an overall treatment strategy that takes into account the multiple manifestations of the illness is outlined.