A case of panic disorder induced by oral contraceptive.

A 27-year-old woman experienced feelings of unreality and fear after taking an oral contraceptive in the form of birth control pills. She subsequently experienced a panic attack just after she had stopped taking the pills. This was characterized by palpitation, general fatigue, trembling of the whole body, and dyspnea. The panic disorder experienced by the patient could have been due to the drug's potentiating of the sympathoadrenal response to simple physiological stimuli, or possibly to a disorder in psychological functioning caused by an anxiotropic effect of rapid endocrinological change.