Panic can keep us from walking into a supermarket or a movie theatre, or turn being stuck in line on a highway or riding a bus into a living hell. Panic is a painful, disturbing experience, featuring sudden, violent symptoms that lead us to believe that it's uncontrollable. But panic can be dominated if it is recognized and addressed in an adequate manner. This book describes case histories of patients, the clinical features of panic, its biological, psychological, and social components, its causes, its relationship with other forms of mental health problems, available therapies, and forms of prevention.

Giovanni Andrea Fava is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the State University of New York at Buffalo and teaches Psychological Therapy and Clinical Psychophysiology at the University of Bologna. He is also editor-in-chief of the prestigious international journal "Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics".

Elena Tomba teaches Test Evaluation Techniques in Clinical Psychology at the University of Bologna and is assistant editor of "Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics".