Bipolar relapse prevention worksheet
Easily explain panic attacks to your clients using a practical panic info sheet. This guide breaks down panic disorder diagnostic criteria, key physical symptoms, and evidence-based coping strategies you can introduce in therapy.
Plus, access a downloadable panic disorder information sheet, including a panic attack infographic, to save to your electronic health record (EHR) and use in your practice.
What is panic disorder?
Panic disorder is a type of anxiety that involves frequent and unexpected panic attacks. Panic attacks may start with feelings of intense anxiety, fear, or doom, which are accompanied by other symptoms, including:
Difficulty breathing
Dizziness
Loss of balance or faintness
Fear of losing control
Feelings of terror
Trembling or shaking
Choking sensations
Heart palpitations, rapid heart rate, or chest pain (which clients often misinterpret as a heart attack)
Sweating
Nausea or other forms of abdominal discomfort
Depersonalization or derealization
Pins and needles
Hot flashes or chills
Fear of dying or “going crazy”
Because physical symptoms like heart palpitations and chest pain can mimic medical emergencies, sharing a panic attack infographic during psychoeducation can help clients understand how their physical sensations connect to the body's natural fight-or-flight response.
Panic attacks can be very upsetting and happen anytime, anywhere, and even in the absence of danger. They sometimes occur in response to a trigger or stressor, but may also happen in response to an unrelated event. People with panic disorder may live in fear of another attack and may even avoid places where they have had an attack. This fear can be all-consuming, and they may not be able to leave their home.
To be diagnosed with panic disorder, the individual must experience frequent and unexpected panic attacks and spend at least one month worrying about future panic attacks or making significant changes in behavior to avoid them (such as avoiding certain places or situations).
Who gets panic disorder?
Panic disorder usually starts when people are in their late teens or early adulthood, and it is more common in women than men. Sometimes panic disorder runs in families, but there is limited research on why some people in the family have the condition and others don’t.
People with panic disorder may also experience other mental health disorders, like depression or other anxiety disorders.
How is panic disorder treated?
When evaluating clients for panic disorder, it’s essential to collaborate with healthcare providers to rule out underlying physical conditions that mimic panic.
Clinicians typically review the client's symptom history, frequency of panic attacks, and diagnostic history.
Treatment for panic disorder includes:
Therapy or counseling: Therapists may use interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure therapy, or other forms of talk therapy. If the panic disorder is related to untreated trauma, the therapist may also try a trauma-specific treatment like eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR).
Medication: This may include antidepressants, beta-blockers, or anti-anxiety medications.
Treatment recommendations should be tailored to the client's specific clinical profile and co-occurring conditions.
How to use the panic attack infographic
Integrating a panic attack infographic into your workflow helps make complex neurobiological concepts accessible to clients during session work. You can download and use the panic attack information sheet in several ways:
Use the sheet to provide essential panic disorder information to clients during early psychoeducation sessions.
Ask the client to use the notes section in the panic attack infographic sheet to reflect on their experiences between sessions and report their findings at their next therapy appointment.
Use the panic info sheet in group therapy sessions to encourage clients to share more about how anxiety and panic impact them with other participants.
Combine this worksheet with other anxiety and cognitive behavioral therapy-related worksheets, including our introduction to anxiety worksheet, cognitive distortions worksheet, CBT for anxiety worksheet, CBT thought record, CBT for social anxiety, and child anxiety worksheets.
Share the worksheet with coworkers or leave copies in your office.
Use this panic info sheet to provide training to interns or supervisees on diagnosis codes for panic disorder.
Sources
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing.
American Psychiatric Association Foundation. (n.d.). Infographic: Supporting Someone Experiencing Anxiety. Center for Workplace Mental Health.
Johns Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.). Panic Disorder.
National Institute of Mental Health. (2025). Panic Disorder: What You Need to Know
National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Panic Disorder.
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