Panic attacks late in life and change before life ends

Summary

This paper is concerned with two years' work with a woman who initially was suffering from panic attacks and who was 82 when we started. There is an introduction making reference to some work being carried out with patients suffering from such attacks. The complaints and symptoms of my patient are then described, followed by a personal history incorporating the onset of these. The treatment which is described was unavoidably unorthodox, taking place in the patient's own home and combining group and individual approaches. An account is given of changes in her thinking, arising out of her treatment, and culminating in her thoughts and fears as her life drew to an end.