Scientists Find Ways To Cope With Anxiety And Panic Attacks

Scientists are getting a grip or at least minimize overwhelming fear for those people suffering anxiety or panic disorders by learning how fear runs through the brain and body. They are taking all of what they learned from the basic studies of animals and bringing that into the clinical practices that may help people.

Scientists figure out that the fear hot spot is the amygdala, an almond-shaped part of the deep brain. Although amygdala is not responsible for all of people’s fear response, says psychology and neuroscience professor Elizabeth Phelps from New York University, it is like the burglar alarm that connects to everything else.

Michael Davis, psychiatry and psychology professor from Emory University, found that a chemical reaction in the amygdala is crucial in the way mice and people learn to overcome fear. When that reaction is deactivated in their animal study, the animals never learn to counter their fears.

Researchers found that D-cycloserine, a drug used to fight tuberculosis, strengthens the chemical reaction in mice. In combination with therapy, it seems to do the same in people. It was first found effective with people who have a fear of heights. It also worked in tests with other types of fear, and lately, it’s being studied in survivors of the World Trade Center attacks and the Iraq war.

It is promising but therapy will still be needed like counseling, self-study, calming exercises and introspection. Says Michigan’s Maren : “You’re not going to be able to take a pill and make these things go away.”