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Risperidone Might Be Effective as Augmentation in Treatment-Resistant Patients With Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Presented at ADAA

By Jerry Ingram

MIAMI, FL -- March 22, 2004 -- Low doses of risperidone might be useful as an additional medication in patients with generalised anxiety disorder who are treatment-resistant, researchers said here on March 13^th at the Anxiety Disorders Association of America 24^th Annual Conference.

"We realise that there are a number of patients with generalised anxiety disorder who do not respond to treatment. So we started looking at atypical antipsychotics to see if the properties of a drug like risperidone in very low doses (from.5 mg to 1.5 mg) could be beneficial. We used the lower doses to avoid potential side effects which could be troublesome to anxiety patients," said lead researcher Olga Brawman-Mintzer, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and Director, Anxiety Disorders Program, Medical University of South Carolina, North Charlston, South Carolina, United States.

"We found that patients who had low doses of risperidone did have significantly greater improvement in the primary measure, using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A). It was statistically significant in comparison to placebo without significant side-effect," Dr. Brawman-Mintzer said.

For this preliminary study, the researchers enrolled 40 non-depressed adults with GAD in a 6-week study. All 40 patients had a HAM-A total score of more than 18 and had failed to respond to treatment with an anxiolytic agent.

After an initial 1-week screening process patients were randomised for a double blind, 5-week treatment with either risperidone augmentation at flexible 0.5 to 1.5 mg/daily or placebo.

Researchers found that the risperidone group had greater reductions in HAM-A total scores and in HAM-A Psychic Anxiety Factor scores when compared with placebo (change of -9.8 versus -6.2, respectively, P = .034 and -6.3 versus -3.8, respectively, P = .047).

Although further study is needed to confirm these findings, the researchers concluded that risperidone in low doses holds promise as a potential tool for treatment-resistant patients with generalised anxiety disorder.


[Study title: Risperidone Augmentation in Treatment-Resistant Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Poster 59]

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