Panic Disorder With Agoraphobia

"In 1968, twenty-five-year-old Douglas Pollock McCloud began experiencing acute feelings of fear and nausea and a pounding heart. He felt as if he were about to lose his mind or die.

McCloud was suffering from untreated panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA)—a disorder so poorly understood in the United States that no formal diagnostic criteria or treatment existed yet. What little he was able to learn came from European and Australian sources. Only in 1980 would the DSM-3 list his symptoms as a diagnosable condition.

The next fifty years would see great strides made in identifying and treating PDA. Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia offers a fascinating examination of the medical history behind PDA diagnoses, supported by elements of McCloud's own search for answers about his condition.