Here’s another potential condition when we’re considering what causes panic attacks – Organic Brain Dysfunction (OBD)
Figures vary widely for how many people who experience panic attacks or who are agoraphobic have OBD. Researchers in Edinburgh believe it may apply to a third of agoraphobics, but figures from USA quote 67 per cent – an incredibly high figure. So what is this organic brain dysfunction?
Babies are born with a number of primitive reflexes. As they mature, the reflexes become modified. However, some people maintain these responses which should have disappeared early on. An inability to balance very well is a feature of OBD, as is cross laterality. This means instead of being, say, right-handed (i.e. predominantly leading with the right hand) and right-footed (i.e. predominantly using the right foot), a person with cross-laterality may be right-handed but left-footed or left-eyed and right footed.
This can manifest as poor physical co-ordination. Visual difficulties are a feature of OBD as well; not whether you are shortsighted, but having poor eye muscle co-ordination or an inability to ignore movement on the edge of the visual field.
The effect of having these difficulties is to place additional strain on the central nervous system, making someone very vulnerable to stress. This could conceivably link in with the theory about misinterpretation of bodily sensations. Someone who unconsciously experiences some of these OBD-generated difficulties could, for example, feel wobbly on their legs, feel frightened, and start to panic – all in a split second.
Not understanding what has been the cause of the wobbly feeling could be enough for someone then to feel frightened of it happening again, causing more anxiety and leading to it becoming a psychological problem too.
Since some of the symptoms of OBD are inherited, it could explain why other researchers suggest that vulnerability to panic attacks is genetically transmitted.
Interest in OBD appears to be growing, especially in its relation to both panic attacks and agoraphobia. It is possible to remedy the problem, but this will be the topic of a future article.
