Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:22:21.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Antidepressants in the treatment of anxiety disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Peter Tyrer
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London W10 6DZ
Cosmo Hallstrom
Affiliation:
Charing Cross Hospital, London W6 8RF
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Antidepressants are increasingly being used for the treatment of anxiety disorders, although they are not specifically licensed for this indication. This has come about partly because of concern over the problem of benzodiazepine dependence and the search for alternative, and preferably better, treatments. Antidepressants and other treatments have proved to be an effective alternative to benzodiazepines despite having more unwanted effects and a delayed onset of action. They may even be more effective than benzodiazepines and their benefits are alleged to be independent of concurrent depressive symptomatology. What is the evidence in favour of these claims?

Type
Keynotes
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1993

References

Cross-National Collaborative Panic Study: Phase Investigators (1992) Drug treatment of panic disorder comparative efficacy of alprazolam, imipramine and placebo. British Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 191202.Google Scholar
Den Boer, J. A. & Westenberg, H. G. (1988) Effect of a serotonin and noradrenalin uptake inhibitor in panic disorder. International Clinical Psychopharmacology, 3, 5974.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, L., Kenardy, J., Schneider, P. et al (1986) Effect of a selective serotonin uptake inhibitor in agoraphobia with panic attacks: a double-blind comparison of zimeldine, imipramine and placebo. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 73, 4953.Google Scholar
Hudson, J. I. & Pope, H. G. Jr (1990) Affective spectrum disorder: does antidepressant response identify a family of disorders with a common pathophysiology? American Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 552564.Google Scholar
Johnstone, E. C., Cunningham-Owens, D. G., Frith, C. D. et al (1980) Neurotic illness and its response to anxiolytic and antidepressant treatment. Psychological Medicine, 10, 321328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahn, R. J., McNair, D. M., Lipman, R. S. et al (1986) Imipramine and chlordiazepoxide in depressive and anxiety disorders: II. Efficacy in anxious out-patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 7985.Google Scholar
Liebowitz, M. R., Gorman, J. M., Fyer, A. J. et al (1985) Social phobia: review of a neglected anxiety disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 729736.Google Scholar
Lipman, R. S., Covi, L., Rickels, K. et al (1986) Imipramine and chlordiazepoxide in depressive and anxiety disorders: I. Efficacy in depressed out-patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 6877.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marks, I. M. (1983) Are there anti-compulsive or anti-phobic drugs? Review of the evidence. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 338347.Google Scholar
Tyrer, P. & Shawcross, C. (1988) Monoamine-oxidase inhibitors in anxiety disorders. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 22, Suppl. 1, 8798.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyrer, P., Seivewright, N., Murphy, S. et al (1988) The Nottingham study of neurotic disorder; comparison of drug and psychological treatments. Lancet, ii, 235240.Google Scholar
Zitrin, C. M., Klein, D. F., Woerner, N. G. et al (1983) Treatment of phobias. 1. Comparison of imipramine hydrochloride and placebo. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 125138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.