Background

How are patients with panic disorder treated at their meeting with primary caregivers.

Aim

To describe experiences of patients with panic disorder and their meeting with care staff within somatic healthcare.

Method

The used method was a narrative study based on blogs found on the Internet. 11 blogs was selected, read, studied and narrative analysed.

Results

The results contains of two themes: encountered with ignorance and encountered with knowledge. Within these two themes six sub-themes were created. The patients experienced when encountered with ignorance not being taken seriously, being treated badly, being stigmatised, which resulted in a feeling of shame. Furthermore they did not get the help they expected but when encountered by knowledge they experienced early diagnosis and follow up.

Conclusion

Patients with panic disorder was often sent home without any action or follow up, and they felt a great betrayal of the health care. A deeper knowledge within care staff in how to treat patients experi-encing panic attacks would lessen the suffering