A panic attack is a sudden feeling of extreme anxiety accompanied by significant physical symptoms such as trembling, sweating and shortness of breath. They are usually accompanied by an overwhelming fear of catastrophe – the person may feel they are dying or suffering a heart attack, or they may fear they are going mad. They can occur in response to specific situations (such as crowded areas) or spontaneously and with no obvious cause. They are usually short-lived (lasting a few minutes) but are so unpleasant that a person may live in fear of it happening again – in many cases, this will lead to the person avoiding situations that they think will trigger an attack (“avoidance behaviour”).

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