[Panic symptoms among general physicians' patients].

OBJECTIVE

On a basis of a large study on anxiety disorders and after a relevant literature review (no Italian survey being present in the last ten yrs on the specific topic), our present purpose is to estimate the one-month point-prevalence of panic symptoms in the primary care setting; to evaluate differences existing between patients with and without panic symptomatology.

METHODS

The sampling involves all consecutive patients visited by a primary care physician every day over four weeks during the recruitment period. Setting--Primary care physician's (PCP) waiting-room, with immediate administration of inventories in the waiting room, under direct supervision of one Author (EG).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-administered inventories as GHQ-12, STAI-Y1-Y2, Panic Attack and Anticipatory Scale.

RESULTS

Out of 409 subjects attending PCP's office during the recruitment period, 327 gave their oral consensus and 305 completed their assignments, constituting our sample. The 21.3% (65 cases) of our sample has shown panic symptoms in the last month. This subgroup with panic is significantly younger and more educated than the subgroup without panic. Moreover the female to male ratio is 2.6:1. Significant differences had been found in the health perception, which is negatively affected by the presence of panic attacks and by GHQ-12 and STAI-Y1-Y2 total scores. These scores are significantly higher than those from panicless patients.

CONCLUSION

Our survey highlights that at least one of five patients visited by the PCP is on average suffering from panic symptoms. This might be related to the well-known physical components of panic symptomatology, but also to the increasing importance of the involved sub-threshold elements.