PANIC DISORDER AND COMPLEX PARTIAL SEIZURES - A TRULY COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP

Panic disorder (PD) is a fairly common anxiety disorder. According to the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (EGA) study, PD affects around 2% of the adult population.(1) Furthermore, 7%-9% of the adult population have recurrent attacks without meeting the frequency criterion, and 1%-1.5% have had at least one attack in the previous 6 months.(2) Complex partial seizures (CPS) are the most common form of seizures. Both entities may share a complex relationship as evidenced by overlapping symptoms, comorbidity, and possible underlying limbic dysfunction.(3-6) PD may be misdiagnosed as CPS and vice versa. Both entities can also coexist with each other.(7) This article illustrates this clinical difficulty with three scenarios and their corresponding original vignettes.