Panic disorder ; Public awareness ; Psychiatric treatment ; Korean patients
Abstract
Objective : This study aimed to investigate the general process from the symptom onset to the psychiatric
treatment in Korean panic patients and the effect of improved public awareness on it.
Methods : This study has a retrospective design. The subjects were the new patients with panic disorder
who visited the psychiatric outpatient clinic in twelve university-affiliated hospitals all across Korea. The
medical chart was reviewed retrospectively and the data were collected including chief complaints of symptoms,
recent stressors, the time to visit the psychiatric outpatient clinic, and visit of other departments and
diagnostic approaches for their symptoms.
Results : A total of 814 participants were included in the study. The most common department other than
psychiatry the panic patients visited were cardiology (28.3%), general internal medicine (16.0%) and neurology
(11.4%). The most frequently used diagnostic tests were a echocardiography (17.9%), 24-hour Holter mon-itoring (11.2%), and brain MRI (8.2%). Only 37.3% of participants visited psychiatric clinic directly. About
80% of participants visited psychiatric department within 1 year after their first panic symptoms and it took
13.8±13.7 weeks on average. Comparing before and after 2012, the number of participants increased who
visit directly the psychiatric clinic without visiting other departments (p=0.002) and without visiting emergency
room (p<0.001).
Conclusions : Our results suggest that a substantial number of patients visit departments other than psychiatry
when they experience first panic symptoms. However, most patients begin psychiatric treatment
within 1 year after their first symptoms and the number of patient are increasing who visit psychiatric department
directly without visiting other departments.