A wealth of evidence has shown that small amounts of carbon dioxide can provoke a panic attack (PA) in certain anxiety-prone individuals.

The Public Library of Science (PLoS ONE) recently published a study showing that inhalation of carbon dioxide (CO2) triggers emotional distress and a panic response in healthy people. The researchers wonder if panic is an inborn survival-oriented response. The results may better our understanding and help prevent some emotional disorders.

A wealth of evidence has shown that small amounts of carbon dioxide can provoke a panic attack (PA) in certain anxiety-prone individuals – like those diagnosed with panic disorders (PD). Panic may be an inborn behavioral response to a metabolic distress – like the triggering of a CO2 level monitor in the brain.

To test whether CO2 effectively controls emotional states, the research team of the Academic Anxiety Center at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands (Griez et al) conducted a study in healthy volunteers breathing increasing amounts of CO2.

Sixty-four subjects performed four double inhalations of increasing doses of CO2, from 0% to 35%, and were assessed with self-report questionnaires. The procedure induced a strictly dose-dependent negative emotion – the higher the CO2 concentration, the stronger the panic.

Conclusions: beyond a particular threshold, increased CO2 has an impact on our mental state, yielding negative psychotropic consequences. This knowledge may be relevant in the prevention of emotional disorders. It is for instance well known that persons with impaired respiratory functions, as asthma and obstructive pulmonary disorders, are at risk for anxiety and depression.

Finally the above results posit panic as an inborn response, expressing the struggle for life in case of impending death, for instance when suffocating. The idea that such a negative emotion naturally proceeds from the disruption of a bodily function, underscores once again the close link between physical condition and mental states.

I wonder what dosage of CO2 above ambient is necessary to trigger the panic response. And with a global increase in CO2, might that triggering level be lessened because the ambient level is increased? Could the result be a rise in global panic – with subsequent reactions such as war and genocide?

This study suggests far more than a simple physiological response in individuals. It suggests to me that far from global warming as the ultimate worst case scenario, global human panic together with technological prowess could spell the demise of all species on the surface of the planet – in the sudden emergence of panic-filled mushroom clouds.

The study can be found here.