Anxiolytic activity of atrial natriuretic peptide in patients with panic disorder

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide), published as a randomized controlled trial.

Preclinical evidence exists for the anxiolytic activity of atrial natriuretic peptide, which is released during lactate-induced panic attacks.

Atrial natriuretic peptide receptor modulation may have antipanic activity in patients with panic disorder.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 10 patients taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

As a double-blind ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) group a baseline to be compared against.

The panicogenic activity of CCK-4 was measured with the Acute Panic Inventory.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Anti-Anxiety Agents, Atrial Natriuretic Factor, Panic Disorder, Receptors, Atrial Natriuretic Factor and Tetragastrin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) in 10 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2001 (The American journal of psychiatry), a journal based in United States.

More context: the ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) compound page, all human trials.