Up dates on the mental disorder panic disorder with agoraphobie (PDA) Essay

Up dates on the mental disorder panic disorder with agoraphobie (PDA) - Essay Example HelpGuide (2006) identifies the general treatments as â€Å"cognitive behavioral therapy, medication, or a combination of the two†. Little is known on the recent developments on the study of these existing treatments. This paper then will attempt to evaluate some recent studies or new investigations that researchers have come up with to gain knowledge on the nature of PDA and its treatments. National Institute of Mental Health says that there are approximately 2.4 million of American adults having panic disorder within the age group of 18 to 54 years. Which is â€Å"about 1.7 percent of people in this age group† and about one third of this population have agoraphobia (as cited in Helpguide, 2006). Symptoms of this disorder feature physical symptoms like shortness of breath, dizziness, palpitations, nausea or abdominal distress that are brought on by incidents that bring intense fear of being alone, dying and losing control in a public place. People with this particular panic disorder try to avoid or endure circumstances which they know they are not at eased with. Another indication is that they tend to become bound to their houses for long periods of time. Like other mental disorders, it is associated with many possible factors but the accurate cause of this disorder is yet to be known. One reason could be that physical symptoms of the anxiety attack of a panic d isorder with agoraphobia coincide with symptoms of other medical conditions. Treatment of PDA usually comes with cognitive-behavior therapies like exposure therapy. It is a very effective way of treating the disorder because first and foremost it makes the patient understand and accept the nature of his situation. In a study done by Asbahr, De Araujo, De Barros-Neto, Ito, Marks, & Tess (2001), self exposure to interoceptive or internal phobia cues were studied in comparison to self exposure to external phobia cues. This study was conducted because exposure therapy to external