Bergen 4-Day Treatment shows lasting relief for panic disorder

Panic attacks can be extremely unpleasant and can cause intense fear. If you experience these attacks regularly, professionals call it panic disorder.

A method to treat the disorder was developed some time ago in Bergen. It runs over four days and is called the Bergen 4-Day Treatment (B4DT) .

Previous research has confirmed that this treatment is a good method to quickly help patients with panic disorder. One week after treatment, almost 90 per cent of patients experience a clear improvement.

But what about the long-term effect? New research has good news to report.

Amazing results

It turns out that the improvement not only persists, but it actually gets stronger over time for many."

Kristen Hagen, psychologist and associate professor at NTNU

Hagen is the project manager and senior author of two studies recently published in BMC Psychiatry.

"With long-term follow-up, patients report that they feel even better – than immediately after therapy and at the follow-up three months after," says Hagen.

"The fact that patients get even better over time is simply remarkable," he says.

The studies also show that the treatment not only reduces panic disorder symptoms, but also symptoms of general anxiety and depression.

Hagen says that despite the good results of the studies, they need to be confirmed with a larger number of patients.

How the treatment works

Instead of dragging the treatment over many weeks, the B4DT method is carried out intensively over four days in the same week.

Three to six patients meet in groups with a corresponding number of therapists.

The patients receive tailored treatment where they practice seeking out symptoms, situations and situations that can trigger anxiety. The patient has often avoided these situations for a long time.

In this therapy, patients face the difficult in a different and more appropriate way. This gives patients insight into the fact that it is the panic disorder and not real causes that have made them fear situations.

Almost 9 out of 10 patients report great improvement with this method. They have minimal symptoms and function relatively well in everyday life afterwards.

The method was developed to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, but has been adapted to treat other mental disorders such as panic disorder.