Hyperventilation and anxiety in panic disorder, social phobia, GAD and normal controls

Patients with DSM-III Agoraphobia, Panic Disorder, GAD, Social Phobia and normal controls underwent a series of experimental procedures and measures to determine whether panic attack patients show a greater tendency towards hyperventilation that is independent from their anxiety levels. Contrary to expectations, the Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder patients did not show significantly lower levels of expired pCO2 at rest than the other anxious or non-anxious groups. However, the panic attack patients did show significantly higher levels of anxiety and hyperventilatory symptoms during a hyperventilation test and during breathing 5% CO2 in air. A strong relationship was found between hyperventilatory symptoms and anxiety in all groups of patients and in the controls. On the basis of these results it was concluded that Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder patients do not show a unique tendency toward hyperventilation, but rather that their hyperventilatory symptoms and perhaps intermittent overbreathing episodes are a function of the high levels of anxiety they experience.