He thought he was having a heart attack. I would see him once or twice a year in the ER to examine and reassure him. Once the heart attack team got to the ER before I did and he got a major work up. This convinced him he wasn't having a heart attack and that form of panic attack did not recur. This is unusual.
Panic disorder is a lifelong illness which waxes and wanes.
It is two to three times more common in women. First-degree relatives are about five times more likely to develop panic. The medicines that help are serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Prozac, Paxil, or Zoloft, tricyclic antidepressants, monamine oxidase inhibitors such as Nardil, and benzodiazipines such as Clonazepam or Klonapin, Alprazolam or Xanax. Beta blockers block the peripheral effects but do not prevent panic. Cognitive behavior therapy teaches the patient how to eliminate avoiding behaviors through environmental manipulation and modifies their alarmist thoughts, cues, or reality distortions.