Project Summary

Marco Battaglia, M.D. (Independent Investigator 2001) of San Raffaele University, will investigate the premise that people with panic disorder (PD) are oversensitive to some suffocative stimuli, like the inhalation of air enriched with carbon dioxide (CO2).  Laboratory stimulation with CO2 provokes a sudden increase in anxiety in subjects with PD, as well as subjects who have only sporadic panic attacks or social phobia.  This increase in anxiety is well tolerated as it lasts from a few seconds to less that one minute, and is employed as a model to explore the psychobiological basis of PD and related conditions.  By interviewing pairs of fraternal and identical twins about their symptoms of anxiety and by directly assessing their sensitivity to CO2 inhalation, Dr. Battaglia aims to determine the degree of overlapping between the genetic and environmental determinants of anxiety & CO2 sensitivity.  If a degree of similarity is found between the genetic determinants of panic and the genetic determinants of CO2 hypersensitivity, researchers can concentrate molecular genetic investigation of PD on those genes that are known to influence CO2 sensitivity, a simpler trait to investigate.  This approach can then ultimately lead to the identification of genes important for PD and related conditions.  Battaglia plans to include blood collections in the study on DNA may be analyzed at a later stage.

Program Area: ANXIETY DISORDERS\Panic Disorder

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