Roca, Miquel, Villamor, Antonio Torres, Molinera, Vicente Gasull et al. · Atencion primaria · 2023 · DOI
This study looked at how often panic disorder occurs in people visiting primary care clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers found that about 5.3% of patients had panic disorder, with more cases in women. People with panic disorder were more likely to have money problems, high stress, and other conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome or irritable bowel syndrome.
This study is relevant to ME/CFS populations because it documents a strong association between panic disorder and chronic fatigue syndrome during the pandemic, suggesting that mental health and post-viral fatigue conditions frequently co-occur. Understanding shared risk factors—particularly socioeconomic stress and high stress levels—may inform integrated treatment approaches for patients with overlapping fatigue and anxiety disorders.
This cross-sectional study cannot establish whether panic disorder causes chronic fatigue syndrome, whether chronic fatigue causes panic disorder, or whether the pandemic itself directly triggered these conditions. The study does not prove that socioeconomic factors directly cause panic disorder; it only shows they are more common in people with panic disorder. Temporal relationships and causal mechanisms remain unclear.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Roca, Miquel, Villamor, Antonio Torres, Molinera, Vicente Gasull, & Gili, Margarita (2023). Characteristics of patients with panic disorder attended in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional multicenter study.. Atencion primaria. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aprim.2023.102703
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-roca-2023-characteristics-patients,
author = {Roca, Miquel and Villamor, Antonio Torres and Molinera, Vicente Gasull and Gili, Margarita},
title = {Characteristics of patients with panic disorder attended in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional multicenter study.},
journal = {Atencion primaria},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.1016/j.aprim.2023.102703},
note = {PubMed: 37422988},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/roca-2023-characteristics-patients},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/roca-2023-characteristics-patients
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