[Panic as a mass phenomenon].

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges in emergency medicine and in particular for emergency staff are disasters with huge amounts of victims. The development of a panic is a rare, but nonetheless an extreme escalation of an emergency situation. This paper describes the psychological and anthropological background of panic reactions and gives a summary of the current evidence in research. Accordingly, panic may be defined as the conclusive endpoint of an internal assessment that the probability to influence ones own survival in a life-threatening situation is close to zero. The possibilities and limitations of behavioral modifications according to strategies that are derived from cognitive and behavioral psychotherapy are discussed. It is crucial to detect situations at risk early and to correctly assess one's abilities for intervention. This ability can be learned with the help of assessment of behavior and self-programming. These methods may help emergency physicians to better assess the risk for the development of a panic following a disaster and thus may be useful in its prevention.