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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
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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

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