ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on several different research strategies, to characterize the clinical and biological nature of panic disorder. It explores new data regarding the phenomenological and longitudinal features of the disorder are presented. The chapter describes biological and psychophysiologic correlates of anxiety are reviewed in relation to research from our laboratory investigating the sleep architecture, pain perception, glucose metabolism and platelet receptor function in patients with panic disorder. It discusses the data from the pharmacologic challenges in humans with clonidine, yohimbine, and caffeine are discussed within the context of current biological theories of anxiety. Agoraphobia with panic attacks is an anxiety syndrome complicated frequently by the presence of depression. Preliminary data from the sleep laboratory suggest that panic patients may have increased motor activity during the sleep.
