WEDNESDAY, Jan. 21 (HealthDayNews) -- An important receptor that helps regulate emotional health is deficient in three brain areas of people with panic disorder.

That what researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health report in the Jan. 21 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

The study included 16 people with panic disorder and 15 healthy people used as control subjects. Brain scans revealed the people with panic disorder have nearly a third less of the serotonin receptor 5-HT1A in three structures -- anterior cingulate, posterior cingulate and raphe -- that straddle the center of the brain.

This research is the first done on living people to show that this receptor, which is vital to the action of widely prescribed anti-anxiety drugs, may be abnormal in people with panic disorder. The finding, along with evidence from recent animal research, suggests genetics may increase the risk for panic disorder.

Each year, about 2.4 million American adults suffer panic attacks, which include feelings of intense fear and physical symptoms that may be confused with a heart attack. Panic disorder runs in families, and scientists have long suspected there's a genetic component to it.

More information

Here's where you can learn more about panic disorder.