[Experimental provocation of panic attacks as a human experimental model for anxiety].

Diagnostic symptom provocation has a long tradition in medicine. In psychiatry, symptom provocation studies are used to study the pathophysiology and treatment of disorders. Sudden and unexpected panic attacks have a characteristic course and a typical pattern of somatic, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral symptoms. Beginning with the study of Pitts and McClure, who described the panicogenic activity of sodium lactate, the experimental induction of panic attacks with different challenges has been used to characterize the neurobiology of anxiety. Furthermore, experimentally induced panic attacks can be used to study possible new treatment approaches. The anxiolytic activity of atrial natriuretic peptide suggests that modulation of natriuretic peptide receptors with nonpeptidergic ligands may be a new treatment approach. Experimentally induced panic attacks are a tool to characterize the neurobiology of anxiety and panic and may be used to develop new treatment approaches.