Antidepressants versus placebo for generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012942.pub2/full?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9PXDT7kmlKSNLDsF4mNG1p0o5RgTZ_7CVzO0DraewwonZv_8oVF-MTmrqKL-Tj-6gDjv64cgakZXz9amrYx1lXHkTKaQ&_hsmi=345022952&utm_content=345022952&utm_source=hs_email Anxiety and antidepressants Researchers confirmed that antidepressants lead to a significant reduction in generalized anxiety disorder symptoms in the short term. The long-awaited update, published by the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, considered by some to be the gold-standard of evidence-based health care, considered evidence from 37 unique randomized control trials with 12,226 participants and found that these drugs are effective compared to a placebo. The drugs’ long-term impacts are muddier, said Prof. Peter Tyrer, an emeritus psychiatry professor at Imperial College London who was not involved in the study. Some patients have difficulties stopping antidepressants because of withdrawal problems. “The main reason why antidepressants were preferred to benzodiazepines (drugs that are equally effective in treating generalised anxiety) was the dependence risk, we just seem to have shifted the problem of adverse effects from one class of drugs to another,” Tyrer said.