The Emergency Service Application Frequency of Patients with Panic Attack and Triggering Stressors

This retrospective study was designed to investigate the frequency of emergency service visits of the panic attack patients and triggering stressors. In this retrospective study, the sample consisted of 300 panic attack patients between the ages of 20 and 79, who applied to the emergency service of a university hospital between the years of 2010 and 2016. Percentage analysis was used for the analysis of descriptive data while Chi-square analysis was used for the analysis of the rates of categorical variables in the groups. 9.1% of the participated patients were female while 30.9% of them were male. It was found that there was a significant difference between the frequency of emergency service applications due to panic attacks by years (p=0.001). When the stressors triggering panic attacks were examined retrospectively, it was determined that being diagnosed with cancer triggered 35% of panic attacks. The study is the first cohort study conducted with the panic attack patients in emergency departments in Turkey. Therefore, there is a need for multi-center, well attended population based studies