Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

00:01 Cognitive behavioral therapy is actually an excellent treatment in helping people get over their panic.

00:07 So what is CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy? Well, it’s the cognitive and behavioral theories generally conceptualized panic disorder as an acquired fear of bodily sensations and particularly sensations that are associated with autonomic arousal in individuals with certain psychological and biological predispositions for the disorder.

00:32 So CBT really helps to rework a patient’s thinking and their behavioral response to their thought pattern.

00:39 In combination, CBT and medication management are very advantageous over using one alone.

00:49 So symptoms that CBT can directly address include panic attacks, anxiety about panic attacks and avoidance situations.

00:57 Key treatment and extremely useful and beneficial to the patient.

01:02 And some would argue that CBT is just as important as pharmacotherapy.

01:08 And while drugs may treat the symptoms, CBT helps to get to the root cause of the psychological disturbance.

01:16 Of note, CBT works best in people who are highly, highly motivated and who value a problem-solving approach.

01:26 Some techniques are providing the patient education about CBT, helping them with muscle relaxation, self-monitoring through journaling or homework assignments and cognitive restructuring, which involves really challenging their fears.

01:41 Also, breathing retraining is very helpful and so is exposure therapy to their fear stimuli that creates the panic Relapse prevention is very important and an essential part of CBT.

01:55 So CBT actually encourages patients to view any recurrence of panic as a lapse rather than a failure and to just reapply their coping skills to help them get through the next trigger.

02:08 That summarizes the panic disorder and now you know a little bit about the difference between a panic attack and panic disorder including the criteria for panic disorder.

02:20 And you should have a good understanding of various ways to treat it, noting that both medication and CBT therapy together can be extremely effective and useful.