Symptoms

Medically, a panic attack must include at least four of the following symptoms and reach a paroxysm in less than 10 minutes:

• palpitations
• sweating
• trembling or muscular tremors
• shortness of breath and sensation of suffocating
• sense of being strangled
• chest pain or discomfort
• nausea or abdominal discomfort
• feeling dizzy, unstable, light-headed, or on the point of fainting
• feeling of unreality or of being detached from oneself
• fear of losing control or of going mad
• fear of dying
• sensation of numbness or tingling in the hands
• shivers or hot flashes