Panic disorder is relatively unique among psychiatric illnesses, in that symptoms resembling the illness can be provoked by a number of chemicals called panicogens. Because naturally occurring panic attacks are unpredictable, the ability to induce an attack becomes a powerful tool for research. Creative Biolabs has extensive experience in psychiatric disease model development and we have established a comprehensive provocative anxiety test system.
Significance of Provocative Anxiety Tests
Spontaneous panic attacks are unpredictable and, therefore, hard to study. The information investigators obtain from panic disorder patients about their panic attacks is essentially subjective and entirely retrospective. In this situation, pharmacological procedures to provoke panic under controlled conditions are important for the experiment. The best validated of these so-called laboratory challenges specifically and reliably induce panic in subjects suffering from real-life attacks, and they are blocked by clinically successful treatment. To this extent, these challenges represent experimental models of panic disorder.
Provocative Anxiety Tests Methods
Lactate infusions are seen as an experimental laboratory model for evoking and studying panic attacks similar or even identical to those occurring spontaneously. This model could be used to investigate the pathophysiology of panic attacks, the efficacy of treatments, and the homogeneity or heterogeneity of different anxiety disorders. Moreover, some authors propose that response to lactate infusions is a possible biologic marker for panic attacks.
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Cholecystokinin Challenge
The cholesystokinin (CCK) receptor agonist, CCK-tetrapeptide (CCK-4), is anxiogenic in a variety of animal models of anxiety, while CCK receptor antagonists exert anxiolytic effects in the same models. The stimulation of CCK receptors induces behavioral responses reminiscent of anxiety. CCK receptor antagonists were found to abolish this anxiogenic response and they appeared to possess effects in animal screens for anxiolytic activity. However, the findings are not unequivocal and seem to depend on the animal model used and to vary between different laboratories.
Services at Creative Biolabs
Using pharmacological procedures to provoke panic under controlled conditions is an important experimental approach to study panic disorder. Focusing on psychotropic drug development for years, Creative Biolabs has extensive experience in provocative anxiety tests. Besides the common models above, we can also offer other tests such as m-chloro-phenylpiperzine (m-CPP) and Yohimbine. We provide flexible solutions for your choice and our experienced experts will help with any kind of service demand.
If the above services do not meet your requirements, please contact us for your exclusive solution.
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