DEFINITION:
The term “claustrophobia” refers to a type of anxiety disorder characterized by a fear of confined spaces.
Individuals with claustrophobia may experience anxiety both in unusual spaces like closets, attics, basements, and underground caverns, and in ordinary ones, such as crowded elevators, locked rooms, office or other rooms with sealed windows, windowless rooms, tunnels, trains, airplanes, and all sorts of enclosed motor vehicles.
ETYMOLOGY:
The term “claustrophobia” was introduced unto the medical literature in 1879 by the French physician of English ancestry, Benjamin Ball (1833–1893), in his book, Du Hystero-névrose ou Névrose cérébrale [On Hystero-Neurosis, or Cerebral Neurosis].
Ball’s term, which falls under the etymological category of “New Latin,” appeared in English within a few years.
The word “claustrophobia” consists of two elements:
(1) The prefix “claustro-,” which derives from the Classical Latin noun claustrum, meaning an “enclosure”; and
(2) The noun “phobia,” which derives, via the Late Latin word phobia, from the Greek word phobos, meaning “fear.” (For further details, see the Glossary entry for agoraphobia.)
DISCUSSION:
Symptoms of claustrophobia usually develop during childhood or adolescence.
Some studies indicate that between five and ten percent of the population worldwide suffers from claustrophobia. However, only a small proportion of claustrophobics ever receive any form of treatment.
In addition to general anxiety about confined space, to officially qualify as being claustrophobic a patient must present with at least one of the following mental, physical, or behavioral symptoms:
- Fear of suffocation
- Choking sensations
- Obsessive thoughts of confinement
- Accelerated heart rate or elevated blood pressure
- Hyperventilation
- Sweating or chills
- Headaches
- Dizziness, fainting spells, and lightheadedness
- “Butterflies” in the stomach
- Nausea
- Tremor
- Paralysis
The foregoing symptoms may vary in severity depending upon the intensity of the underlying disorder.