Possible role of sweating in the pathophysiology of panic attacks

Abstract In recent years the role of hyperventilation in the generation of panic attacks has attracted a considerable amount of interest. According to these studies hyperventilation can elicit the somatic symptoms of panic due to systemic alkalosis. We suggest that since in the case of panic, sweating might cause alkalosis, it could also contribute to the generation of panic attacks. In light of this hypothesis we made a statistical analysis of the panic symptoms of 111 panic patients diagnosed according to DSM-III criteria. The analysis revealed that: 1. (1) there was a well identified group of panic patients who had minor breathing difficulties with heavy sweating 2. (2) that all the patients sampled had either severe breathing, or sweating symptoms, or both. We conclude that in the absence of the intensive physical activity of the ‘flight or fight’ reaction, sweating as well as hyperventilation can cause alkalosis, which in turn might generate panic attacks.