RESEARCH ARTICLE
Panic Disorder and Chronic Caffeine Use: A Case-control Study
Veruska Andrea Santos1, Silvia Hoirisch-Clapauch2, Antonio E. Nardi1, Rafael Christophe Freire1, 3, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2019Volume: 15
First Page: 120
Last Page: 125
Publisher ID: CPEMH-15-120
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901915010120
Article History:
Received Date: 08/07/2019Revision Received Date: 21/08/2019
Acceptance Date: 02/09/2019
Electronic publication date: 30/09/2019
Collection year: 2019
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Acute administration of caffeine produces panic attacks in most Panic Disorder (PD) patients, but little is known about chronic caffeine use in these patients.
Objective:
To assess caffeine use in patients with PD and to ascertain if caffeine consumption is associated with sociodemographic or clinical features.
Methods:
65 adults with PD and 66 healthy controls were included in the current study. Their caffeine intake within the previous week was quantified with a questionnaire and compared. Harmful caffeine use was defined as consumption above 400 mg/day of caffeine. We tested for correlations between caffeine intake, demographic and clinical features.
Results:
Patients consumed significantly more caffeine than controls (P < 0.001). 14% (N = 9) of the PD patients made harmful use of caffeine. The use of caffeine-containing medications was observed in 40% (N = 26) of the PD patients and 6% (N = 4) of controls. Consumption of energy drinks was observed in 11% (N = 7) of PD patients and in none of the healthy subjects. Patients reported sleeping significantly less than controls (P < 0.001). In PD patients, caffeine consumption was not correlated with the presence of panic attacks or comorbidity with depression. The use of benzodiazepines or sedative medications was not correlated with caffeine intake.
Conclusion:
High caffeine consumption in PD patients could be explained by the development of tolerance with regular use of this substance. Subtypes of sensitive and non-sensitive PD patients could also explain why some of these patients are able to tolerate high doses of caffeine.
