atic stress disorder. Panic disorder is characterized by sudden, unexpected, and intense attacks of apprehension or anxiety accompanied by fearful thoughts and activating physical symptoms and sings, with attacks lasting less than an hour. Generalized anxiety disorder is a syndrome with such features as habitual worrying along with motor tension, autonomic hyperactivity, a feeling of apprehension, vigilance, an exaggerated startle response, difficulty concentrating, insomnia, and irritability, accompanied by anxiety. Simple phobias are persistent, irrational fears resulting in the avoidance of certain things, while social phobias involve a dread of social situations in which the individual may be exposed to humiliation or embarrassment. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a chronic illness characterized by recurrent intrusive and disabling thoughts and repetitive stereotypical behavior that a person feels driven to perform. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a syndrome that follows exposure to a traumatic stressor and that includes re-experiencing the trauma, numbing and avoidance, and hyperarousal (Michels and Marzuk, 1993a,b).
Panic attacks have been reproduced in the laboratory, and there have been studies of agents affecting the respiratory systems that may ultimately link deranged respiratory control with panic attacks. The most exciting neuroanatomical and neurotransmitter corr
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