Panic Attacks Medication – Discover Drugs and Other Treatments For Panic Attacks

Panic attacks medications – what are the useful drugs that you can take to both quickly stop a panic attack in progress and also prevent them happening again in future? In this article, I’ll reveal your drug treatment options and also explain how the true cause of panic attacks can help you to defeat them for good.

Drugs To Quickly Stop Panic Attacks – Benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines, also known as “benzos”, are the most commonly prescribed drugs for quickly stopping a panic attack.

A panic attack typically lasts between 30 minutes and one hour and immediately taking one of these drugs can reduce the symptoms within minutes.

These drugs work by depressing the central nervous system – basically, they make you “slower”. Each drug in this class is slightly different but they all do similar things. Some example names are Lorazepam (Ativan) and Clonazepam (Klonopin).

However, many doctors do not like prescribing these for panic attacks because they are very habit forming. Just 3 weeks of use is enough for you to form a mental or physical dependence on them.

Drugs To Prevent Panic Attacks – Antidepressants

Antidepressants are commonly prescribed to patients with a history of panic attacks. The most commonly prescribed ones are from the modern class of drugs called SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors).

For panic attack sufferers, these help to reduce anxiety which is a key contributor to triggering panic attacks in the first place.

What Causes Panic Attacks?

In panic attack sufferers, it is their anxiety about the possibility of having a panic attack which actually causes them to have future panic attacks. In medical terms, this is known as a “positive forward feedback loop”.

For example, a small trigger such as slight chest discomfort may make you worry about the possibility of a heart attack. This worry (or anxiety) causes your sympathetic nervous system to increase the heart rate, adrenalin and other aspects of the body. When you detect the increased heart rate, you start to believe that your fears are coming true and you get even more nervous. The cycle rapidly repeats itself until you have a full blown panic attack.

Behavioral Therapy

SSRI/SSNI drugs help somewhat but they don’t cure panic attacks. Doctors and other medical professionals are more likely to recommend that you undertake behavorial therapy.

This is a form of therapy that helps you to modify your way of thinking early on, before the panic attack can establish itself. In the example below, you can learn to dismiss any chest discomfort for what it really is – probably nothing – instead of exaggerating it and spiralling into a full blown panic attack.

It is highly effective and usually recommended over and above drug therapies and their associated side effects.

Discover how to “break the loop” with a behavioral program that has helped over 27,000 former panic attack sufferers from around the world, here: Panic Attacks Treatment.

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