The essential assumption of the biomedical model is that mental illness is basically or at least in part a biological disease. In other words, there are some pathological changes in the central or peripheral nervous system structure, function of some organ, metabolism or catabolism of some endogenous substances or that there is a malfunctioning biochemistry.
Biomedical model is a useful framework for panic disorder.
The physical nature of the symptoms of panic attack provides some reasons for this claim. These symptoms correspond to a great degree to symptoms of acute activation of the sympathetic branch of the autonomous nervous system. In addition to this, pharmacological treatment with tricyclic antidepressants and MAO inhibitors is effective in the alleviation of panic attacks, suggesting some kind of dysregulation of brain neurochemistry.