Source: Circulation  |  Posted 9 years ago

Paroxetine is an effective and well tolerated treatment for generalized anxiety disorder.

Investigators from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, United States, assessed the efficacy of two fixed doses of paroxetine in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Five hundred sixty-six patients with generalized anxiety disorder and no other axis I disorders were included in the study. All of the patients had a score of 20 or more on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety. All had scores of 2 or higher on the anxious mood and tension items of the scale.

Patients underwent a one-week placebo run-in phase and were then randomly assigned to receive paroxetine at either 20 or 40 milligrams per day or placebo for a period of eight weeks.

Results showed that both paroxetine groups experienced significant improvement in total scores on the Hamilton scale after eight weeks.

Sixty-two percent of the patients in the 20-milligram group and 68% of the patients in the 40-milligram group responded to treatment. The response rate in the placebo group was 46%.

Remission, defined by a Hamilton Anxiety Scale score of 7 or less, was achieved by 30 and 36% of patients in the 20- and 40-milligram groups, respectively.

Functional impairment as measured on the Sheehan Disability Scale was significantly improved in both paroxetine groups compared with placebo.

Both doses of paroxetine were well tolerated.