The role of fear learning in panic disorder.

More than 20% of the general population experience a panic attack once in their lives; however, only a minority goes on to develop panic disorder. The alarm theory tries to explain the etiology of panic disorder through interoceptive conditioning. To date studies concerning panic disorder and interoceptive conditioning are limited.

The aim of the present study is to establish intero-interoceptive fear conditioning in healthy participants in a differential conditioning paradigm. We want to make use of “real” interoceptive conditioned stimuli (CS): a low respiratory load and small infusions of pentagastrin will be used as CS. CO2-enriched air is used as unconditioned stimulus.

This study involves a double-blinded randomised design.Healthy volunteers with an age range between 18-65 years are included in the study. The main study outcome are the subjective reports (fear and physical symptoms) and the physiological measurements (respiration rate, tidal volume) that are assessed during the test-phase.

We want to establish intero-interoceptive conditioning in healthy volunteers for the better understanding of the development of panic attacks into panic disorder.

All assesments are measured before and after each trial. The differences between the trial in the test part are important.

We want to establish intero-interoceptive fear conditioning with a differential conditioning paradigm. We want to make use of “real” interoceptive conditioned stimuli (CS): A low respiratory load (1.43 kPa/l/s) resistance and small infusions of pentagastrin (0.2 µg/ kg) will be used as CS. CO2-enriched air is used as unconditioned stimulus (UCS). To rule out possible procedural effects also a placebo injection and placebo resistance is included in this study. The experiment consists of two parts, acquisition and test. During acquisition we want to establish conditioning (linking CS to the UCS). During the test part only the CS is given without the UCS.