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What will happen to me?
Some people need just one course of treatment to get rid of their panic attacks for good. But others need a few courses to get rid of all of their symptoms.

It's important not to give up with treatment if your symptoms haven't gone away after one course of treatment.1

Many people find that their symptoms come and go. There may be times when you don't have any panic attacks at all or you have just a few attacks with symptoms that aren't too bad. At other times, you may have two or three attacks a week, and the symptoms may be severe.

Overall, studies show that with treatment, about half of people with panic disorder get better. The other half have some mild symptoms that come and go, but they are not very sick.2

If you have other mental health problems, it may be harder for you to make a good recovery. For example, we know that if you have agoraphobia, anxiety or depression as well as panic disorder, you're likely to do less well than if you have just have panic disorder.3

Please remember that it's hard to say what will happen to you individually. Everybody is different. And a treatment that helps you may not help someone else. Statistics are a useful guide to what might happen when you get help, but they may not reflect exactly what will happen to you.



Sources for the information on this page:
  1. Andrews G, Creamer M, Crino R et al. The treatment of anxiety disorders: clinician guides and patient manuals. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK; 2002.
  2. Spiegel DA, Barlow DH. Generalized anxiety disorders. In: Gelder MG, Lopez-Ibor JJ, Andreasen NC (editors). New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. 1st edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK; 2000. In: New Oxford textbook of psychiatry. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK; 2000.
  3. Tyrer P, Seivewright H, Simmonds S, et al. Prospective studies of cothymia (mixed anxiety-depression): how do they inform clinical practice? European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. 2001; 251 (supplement 2): 53-56.
This information was last updated in Mar 10, 2008