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Treating panic disorder without antidepressant drugs

Laying Off the Panic Button

Panic. There’s a lot of that going around these days.

But panic about the economy or the general state of world affairs is quite different than a panic that rises up from within.

My friend Shelby knows this from painful firsthand experience.

“It came out of nowhere and hit like a sledgehammer.” That’s how she describes her first panic attack experience. But Shelby was more fortunate than most patients with panic disorder, because her doctor knew how to treat the condition without resorting to antidepressant drugs.

High drama

I asked Shelby if she could describe what a panic attack is like.

The description? No problem. The attack? A nightmare.

Shelby: “It’s nonstop terror with no relief. The rapid heartbeat, the gasping for breath, the chest pressure – worst of all, the jittery, jagged feeling that something unbearably awful is about to happen any minute.

“That may sound overly dramatic, but panic disorder is total drama – a living horror movie, and you’re the star. Only the ‘monster’ is your own mind, and it’s completely irrational and uncontrollable. Or so I used to think.

“The attacks gradually got worse, until there was a day when one refused to let up. By evening, I thought I would either go crazy or kill myself to escape. My holistic M.D. rescued me next morning by prescribing inositol, the treatment of choice in Europe for panic disorder. (Inositol is a natural substance found in the human body, but mine apparently didn’t make enough.)

“The very first dose lessened my symptoms. By the third dose that evening, the nightmare experience was over. It truly was a miracle. And it kept working, until my panic mostly faded into a bad memory.

“The inositol is a marvel. It definitely helps control the ‘uncontrollable’ aspect of panic disorder.”

Anchored in the present

Patients who suffer panic attacks are usually treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Fluvoxamine – an SSRI that’s often prescribed for panic disorder, as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.

In a 2001 trial conducted at a mental health center in Israel, inositol was tested against Fluvoxamine in patients with panic disorder. During the month-long trial, inositol controlled anxiety as well as Fluvoxamine did, but was significantly more effective in reducing panic attacks.

SSRI drugs are known to prompt typical adverse side effects such as anxiety, nausea, dizziness, and insomnia. Shelby tells me that although she’s never experienced any side effects with inositol, she’s cut back to a very low dose. In addition, she’s developed some effective coping techniques.

Shelby: “I came to realize the panic attacks were not uncontrollable once I understood how they started and grew. I was basically creating my own panic by bouncing back and forth between past guilts and fears, to future non-existent terrors. Back and forth, again and again.

“Now I anchor myself in the present. I force myself to think about what I’m saying, force myself to stop recalling past ‘nasties’ and force myself to stop imagining them as even nastier future outcomes. I stay right here, right now, in the present. It takes determination and effort, but it works.”

Talk to your doctor before treating panic disorder with inositol.

Source:
 “Double-Blind, Controlled, Crossover Trial of Inositol Versus Fluvoxamine for the Treatment of Panic Disorder” Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, Vol. 21, No. 3, June 2001, psychopharmacology.com

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