Anxiety is often under-diagnosed in primary care, compared to depression, but there has been an increase in primary care presentations of anxiety over the past few years, especially in young people. The evidence for pharmacological treatments of anxiety will be reviewed.
The first line treatment for anxiety is SSRI medication but many people do not respond. Results are presented from the PANDA trial of sertraline vs placebo that suggests sertraline has more benefit for generalised anxiety symptoms than depressive symptoms, especially in the first few weeks of treatment. Antipsychotics have anti-anxiety effects and this might be one reason quetiapine prescriptions have been increasing the past few years. Benzodiazepines of course have issues with dependence. Pregabalin is also increasing in use but there is little evidence that it is effective when augmenting SSRI treatment. A new trial PETRA that will examine this question, is described.
Chair: Naomi Fineberg, University of Hertfordshire, Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
Glyn Lewis, University College London, United Kingdom
Michael Bloomfield, University College London, United Kingdom
