When one typically gets a panic attack the symptoms are not that bad if the attack is not severe. However in the case of a severe panic attack the symptoms will resemble the heart attack. The patient's heart will race or he/she will feel irregular heart beats, he/she might also profusely sweat and will complain of the chest pain.
Typically the patient will be dizzy and will express fears of a heart attack and the consequent death. Most of the americans mistake the panic attack for a heart attack especially if they have experienced it for the first time. The first timers are often rushed to the emergency rooms of the hospitals and get diagnosed with nothing.
Usually the number of cases of wrong diagnosis has been observed more in women as compared to the men. The suspected reason behind this is that more women suffer from the anxiety and the panic problems as compared to men. That is why it has become a tendency to misdiagnose the heart disease in the women as panic attacks.never delay seeking professional advice if you are dubious about the nature of the attack.
Keep in mind that a heart attack can be fatal enough to take your life. Other than that it can cause severe muscle problems and the problems of the blood vessels. Also if one does not get a life saving treatment in the first 30 minutes of an attack permanent heart damage or death can occur. Due to the severe chest pain too the heart attack can be misdiagnosed as a panic attack.
Even the best and the most reliable researches have not been able to find a link between the panic and the heart attacks and it can safely be stated that the panic does not cause heart attacks. This has not happened in any good hospital that a person diagnosed with panic and anxiety disorders actually had heart problems. The heart attacks are caused by an entirely different set of reasons.
The heart problems too can be genetic. But the attack occurs only when the life style of the patient is not good enough to resist an attack. Obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels can lead to a heart attack but the panic can not. It is true that the heart undergoes a brutal exercise during a panic attack but the point is that the life of the person experiencing the attack is not in danger.
When a panic attack occurs the major similar symptoms are rapid or the irregular heart beats which speed up with every passing moment. This irregular heart beat is often accompanied by some severe pains in the chest. But the difference between the two is that pain of a heart attack is marked by severe, sharp and pointed pain.
However, the pain in an anxiety attack is of a stationary nature. The pain does not move in to other part of the body whereas the situation is opposite in a heart attack. Panic anxiety attacks are often accompanied by severe sweating.
