Journal of Medical Cases 2012 (Jaargang 3-Nummer 1)
In-vivo EEG Changes During A Panic Attack in A Patient With Specific Phobia
Hessel J. Engelbregta, d, Daniel Keeserb, Vincent H.L. Promesa, Sonja Verhagen-Schoutena, Jan Berend Deijenc
aHersencentrum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
bDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and Department of Clinical Radiology, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich, Germany
cVU University, Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
dCorresponding author: Hessel J. Engelbregt, Hersencentrum, Amsterdam, Marnixstraat 364-366, 1016 XW Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Email: hessel@hersencentrum.nl
Manuscript accepted for publication October 21, 2011
Short title: EEG Derivatives of Panic Attack Due to Specific Phobia
doi:10.4021/jmc403e
Abstract
Since early adolescence a 47-year-old male suffers from specific phobia with panic disorder (PD) which is similar to agoraphobia. The panic starts when he crosses the borders of his domicile, regardless of the type of transport. On request of client and his GP, we recorded his EEG during a car trip from his house to a distant village. We aimed to explore underlying EEG changes that may accompany the initiation and the progression of his panic attacks. The panic attack took place during the car-ride where we detected an increase of frontal beta (β) activity (13-26 Hz) and a relatively sudden decrease of frontal-central theta (θ) activity (3-6 Hz). These findings suggest that EEG recordings can be useful to monitor the beginning and the end of a panic attack and may determine the exact EEG changes that initiate a panic attack.
Keywords:Phobia; Panic disorder; Panic attack; Agoraphobia; EEG recordings; Beta activity; Theta activity
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