Panic Attack Causes

One theory of panic attack causes holds that panic attacks are caused by a falsely activated alarm system in the brain. This area is called the locus ceruleus because the neurons there are blue in color. The major concentration of adrenergic neurons is located in the locus ceruleus. The axons (the parts of the nerve that conduct the nervous impulses away from the cell body) of these nerve cells are connected into the cerebral cortex, the limbic system, the thalamus, and the hypothalamus.

A person has noradrenergic overload when the false alarm goes off. Panic attack patients are then flooded with adrenaline (epinephrine), which makes them feel frightened. Panic attack causes and triggers a "fight or flight" response when nothing bad is actually happening in the environment.

Early human beings developed these biological systems when they needed to either defend themselves from an enemy or escape immediately from dangerous situations. Like any alarm system, it's easy for it to go astray. The malfunction of the system is thought to be hereditary so you could say panic attack causes are passed on from generation to generation.

Recent data are also showing that other panic attack causes are chemical imbalances in the nervous system and not the patient's imagination as some people claim. The exact panic attack causes remain unknown. The hippocampus is an elongated structure in the floor of the ventricle of the brain that is an important part of the limbic system.

The limbic system is a group of brain parts located below the cortex that is concerned with emotion and motivation. It is not clear if this area of the brain is involved in panic disorder. More research is needed to understand these areas. At any rate, we would not say you are brain damaged if you have panic attacks, but you can say that your alarm system is faulty.

When a person takes antidepressants, we believe that these medicines get into the locus ceruleus part of the brain and down-regulate neuroreceptors. Down-regulations of receptors may be a healing process of the faulty alarm system. In about 50% of cases, treatment of panic attacks with antidepressants for one year will lead to a panic attack-free life afterwards.

The medical community is frustrated that is not found one or more specific panic attack causes through years of research but the human body and brains are incredibly complex units that are still not completely understood. The fact that antidepressants work in some cases leads one to believe that one of the panic attack causes could be a chemical imbalance in the brain which is what causes depression.