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A Historical Inquiry into the Appropriateness of the Term `Panic Disorder'

Athens University Medical School gnchrist{at}compulink.gr

Aristotelis Eftychiadis

Department of Medical History, Athens University Medical School

George I. Papakostas

Department of Psychiatry, Harvard University Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital

George N. Christodoulou

Department of Psychiatry, Athens University Medical School

Panic disorder was introduced in the standard psychiatric nosology with the publication of the DSM-III in 1980. The myriad of earlier medical and psychiatric names describing anxiety attacks and related conditions were all abandoned, being housed under the term `panic attack and panic disorder.' In this paper, the rationale and the appropriateness of this term are critically examined from a historical perspective. First, a brief historical account of anxiety that comes in the episodic form, and the medical and psychiatric terminology that emerged during the last two centuries regarding this condition, are presented. Next, the origins of the concept of panic as a collective or individual fear reaction are traced from a mythological and historical standpoint, up to its current, almost accidental, introduction into the official psychiatric diagnostic systems. Since the word `panic' has its roots in the Greek god Pan and the unpleasant states inflicted by him, this god is described, as well as St Gilles - also known as St Aegidios, the Athenian - the healing saint for those suffering from panic, horror and phobias. Finally, the current diagnostic features of panic disorder are systematically compared with the corresponding troubles inflicted on people by the mythical god Pan. It is concluded that the introduced term `panic' appropriately and successfully replaced the old ones.

Key Words: anxiety disorder • history • Pan • panic • psychiatry

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