Panic Disorder Test: See How Much Panic Is Affecting Your Daily Life
This panic disorder test screens for panic attacks, fear of another attack, and avoidance. Adapted from PDSS dimensions, it gives an instant severity result and an optional report to discuss with a clinician.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
Panic Disorder Test is a free, confidential 12-question self-assessment, informed by the Panic Disorder Severity Scale. It takes about 6 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 3 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
Panic is more than the attacks themselves
Good panic measures look beyond how often attacks happen. The PDSS framework also weighs the dread between attacks and the ways panic quietly reshapes your life, because those are often what cause the most suffering.
The PDSS dimensions
This screener explores panic attack frequency and distress, anticipatory anxiety, avoidance of situations, and avoidance of physical sensations. The clinical Panic Disorder Severity Scale also assesses work and social impairment, which this educational adaptation includes in its questions about daily life.
Anticipatory dread
For many people the fear of the next attack is more limiting than the attacks. We measure the worry and watchfulness that build up in between, not just the episodes themselves.
How life narrows
Panic often shrinks a person's world: skipped events, avoided places, exercise dropped because a racing heart feels dangerous. We capture that interference, which is where treatment makes the biggest difference.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Based on DSM-5 panic criteria | Vaguely | Yes, faithful to the criteria |
| Covers PDSS dimensions | Rarely | All five dimensions |
| Anticipatory anxiety measured | Often missed | Yes, its own focus |
| Avoidance and interference | No | Yes, situational and bodily |
| Clinician-reviewed interpretation | Rarely | Yes, reviewed |
| Optional in-depth personalized report | No | Yes, written to your exact scores |
| Confidential (no data sent) | Often tracked | Runs in your browser |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–48 in total. Your result falls into one of 3 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–11 | Low panic burden | Your answers point to a low panic burden. Panic does not seem to be shaping your life much right now. |
| 12–27 | Moderate panic burden | Your answers point to a moderate panic burden. Panic is showing up enough to be worth addressing. |
| 28–48 | High panic burden | Your answers point to a high panic burden. Panic seems to be taking a real toll, and support is genuinely worth it. |
Panic disorder vs. agoraphobia and generalized anxiety
The Panic Disorder Test explores attacks, worry, and avoidance. These three often travel together, which makes them easy to mix up. Panic disorder centers on recurrent, often unexpected panic attacks plus ongoing worry about the next one. Agoraphobia is fear of situations where escape would be hard or help unavailable if panic struck, such as crowds, bridges, or being far from home, and it frequently develops after a period of panic attacks, though it can occur on its own. Generalized anxiety looks different again: a more constant, diffuse worry about everyday things, without the sudden physical surge that defines a panic attack.
If avoiding places has become the bigger issue for you, even apart from the attacks themselves, the Agoraphobia Test may describe your experience more precisely. If your worry feels constant and spread across many areas of life rather than centered on attacks, the Anxiety Test is a better fit. If you find yourself convinced the physical sensations mean a serious illness, the Health Anxiety Test looks at that pattern specifically.
What a panic attack feels like
Panic attacks are intensely physical, which is part of why they are so frightening. Common sensations include a pounding or racing heart, chest tightness or pain, shortness of breath, dizziness or lightheadedness, trembling or shaking, sweating, nausea, tingling or numbness, chills or hot flashes, and a frightening sense of unreality about yourself or your surroundings.
Alongside the physical symptoms comes a wave of fear, often a conviction that you are having a heart attack, losing control, or dying, even though the attack itself is not dangerous. It typically peaks quickly and then fades. If the sense of unreality or detachment from your body lingers well beyond the attack itself, the Depersonalization & Derealization Test covers that experience in more depth.
What to do during a panic attack
In the moment, the goal is to ride out the wave rather than fight it. Slow, deliberate breathing, especially a longer exhale than inhale, signals safety to your nervous system faster than trying to think your way out of it. Naming five things you can see, four you can hear, and three you can feel can pull attention out of the spiral and back into the room. Our Box Breathing and Grounding Techniques tool pages walk through both in more detail.
Longer term, the most effective approach is gradually and safely learning that the physical sensations themselves are not dangerous, an approach sometimes called interoceptive exposure. Practicing it with a therapist tends to work better than doing it alone, since a professional can pace the exposure so it builds confidence instead of overwhelming you. If panic keeps returning or is starting to shrink your world, the Psychology.com therapist directory is a free way to find someone who treats panic and anxiety.
When symptoms are new, severe, or different from your usual episodes, seek medical assessment rather than assuming they are panic. Chest pain, fainting, or marked difficulty breathing can need urgent care. A previous panic diagnosis does not explain every future physical symptom.
How accurate is this panic disorder test?
This educational adaptation has not been validated as a substitute for the clinical PDSS. Its descriptive bands summarize your answers; they cannot establish panic disorder or rule out physical causes. Published findings for the original scale cannot be transferred directly to changed questions and scoring.
Bring concrete examples to an appointment: what happened before an attack, which sensations you noticed, what you feared, and which activities you now avoid. Include episodes that happened during sleep and any medication or substance changes. The tests hub offers other self-assessments when your concerns extend beyond panic.
Methodology & sources
This test is informed by the DSM-5 criteria for panic disorder and by the dimensions of the Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS), developed and validated by Shear and colleagues (1997). The PDSS rates seven dimensions of panic disorder, including panic attack frequency, distress during attacks, anticipatory anxiety, agoraphobic avoidance, avoidance of feared physical sensations, and impairment in work and social life. Our items adapt those dimensions into plain-language statements rated from 0 (none) to 4 (extreme), giving a total from 0 to 48. This is an educational adaptation, not the scored clinical PDSS, and the bands are descriptive rather than official diagnostic cutoffs.
This test is provided for education and self-reflection. It is not a diagnosis. Panic attacks can be intensely frightening, yet they are not physically dangerous in themselves, and panic disorder is one of the most treatable anxiety conditions. Only a licensed clinician can assess panic disorder, ideally by talking with you about your history and ruling out medical causes. If your result concerns you, treat it as a prompt to reach out, not as a label.
References
- Shear MK, Brown TA, Barlow DH, et al. Multicenter collaborative Panic Disorder Severity Scale. Am J Psychiatry. 1997;154(11):1571-1575.
- American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). Arlington, VA: APA; 2013.
- Houck PR, Spiegel DA, Shear MK, Rucci P. Reliability of the self-report version of the Panic Disorder Severity Scale. Depress Anxiety. 2002;15(4):183-185.
- National Institute of Mental Health. Panic Disorder: What You Need to Know. nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/panic-disorder-when-fear-overwhelms
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 16). Panic Disorder Test. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/panic-disorder
Panic Disorder Test FAQ
What is a panic disorder test?
It is a short, research-informed screening that looks at how often panic attacks happen and how much they affect your life, across the dimensions clinicians use in the Panic Disorder Severity Scale. It produces a descriptive severity result, not a diagnosis.
Are panic attacks dangerous?
Panic attacks can feel terrifying and can resemble a heart attack, with a racing heart, chest tightness, and intense fear. Panic itself is not usually life-threatening, but a screening result cannot identify the cause of chest symptoms. Seek urgent medical help for new, severe, or unusual chest pain, fainting, or difficulty breathing, even if you have experienced panic before.
What is the difference between a panic attack and panic disorder?
Many people have an occasional panic attack. Panic disorder is when attacks recur unexpectedly and you spend ongoing time fearing the next one or changing your behavior to avoid it. The pattern, not a single attack, is what defines the condition.
Is this test a diagnosis?
No. It is for education and self-reflection only. Only a licensed clinician can diagnose panic disorder, usually by talking with you about your symptoms, history, and life context. If your results concern you, consider reaching out to a therapist or doctor.
Can panic disorder get better?
Panic disorder can improve with appropriate care. Cognitive behavioral therapy, including carefully planned exposure, and medications are treatment options described by the National Institute of Mental Health. A clinician can discuss which approach fits your symptoms, health, and preferences. Progress varies, and ongoing symptoms are a reason to review the plan with your clinician rather than blame yourself.
How many questions are on this panic disorder test?
The test has 12 statements covering the dimensions the Panic Disorder Severity Scale weighs: how often attacks happen, how distressing they are, anticipatory anxiety between attacks, avoidance of situations, and avoidance of physical sensations. Most people finish in a few minutes and get an instant severity result with a breakdown across those areas.