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Treatment with Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor Reduces Rate of Relapse in Panic Disorder: Presented at CPA

By Steve Pridgeon

VANCOUVER, CANADA -- November 10, 2005 -- Research presented at the 55^th annual conference of the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA) indicates that venlafaxine XR (Effexor XR) maintains its effectiveness during long-term therapy for panic disorder (PD), significantly reducing the risk of relapse.

Panic disorder is a chronic illness often associated with comorbid psychiatric conditions, including depression and social anxiety disorder. Short-term treatment with the serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) venlafaxine XR has been shown to be effective, said investigator James Ferguson MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.

Dr. Ferguson and colleagues conducted a prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to investigate the ability of venlafaxine XR to prevent relapse in patients who had experienced improvements in PD symptoms with short-term therapy with venlafaxine XR.

Patients were aged 18 years or older and had a Diagnostic Statistical Manual - Revision IV diagnosis of PD for 3 months or more. They were required to have a Clinical Global Impression - Improvement (CGI-I) score of 4 or greater.

After 12 weeks of open-label therapy, patients who responded to venlafaxine XR were randomized to venlafaxine XR or placebo for 26 weeks. A response was defined as one or more full-symptom panic attacks per week during the last 2 weeks of open-label treatment and a CGI-I score of 1 or 2.

Of 291 patients in the open-label phase, 169 were assigned randomly to either venlafaxine XR or placebo in the double-blind phase.

Time to relapse, which was the primary endpoint of the study, was significantly longer in the treated group than in the placebo group. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis found that 22.5% of patients on venlafaxine XR relapsed, compared to 50% of those in the placebo group (P < .001).

Patients on venlafaxine XR were less likely to discontinue the study than those on placebo, noted Dr. Ferguson, who concluded that venlafaxine is safe, well tolerated and effective in the long-term treatment and prevention of relapse in patients with PD.

This presentation was funded by Wyeth Research.


[Presentation title: Prevention of Panic Disorder Relapse in Adult Outpatient Responders to venlafaxine XR. Abstract P-22]

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