Monotherapy with quetiapine seems to be efficacious in reducing symptoms of generalised anxiety disorder and this effect may be similar to that of antidepressants .
BACKGROUND Anxiety disorders are common and disabling conditions , with a lifetime prevalence of 17 % in the general population .
Due to high rates of treatment resistance , there is interest in new pharmacological treatment options such as second-generation antipsychotics .
OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of second-generation antipsychotics as monotherapy or adjunctive treatment for people with anxiety disorders .
Aripiprazole as an augmentor of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in depression and anxiety disorder patients
More than half of anxiety and depression patients treated with an adequate course of antidepressants fail to fully improve . We retrospectively examined whether treatment-resistant depression and anxiety disorder patients responded to and tolerated augmentation with the atypical antipsychotic , aripiprazole . We report on patients with depression and anxiety disorders , including panic disorder , generalized anxiety disorder , social anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder , who had an incomplete response to a variety of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs ) and who received augmentation with aripiprazole .  The primary outcome measure was the Clinical Global Impression of Improvement ( CGI-I ) . In the intent-to-treat analysis , the mean±SD CGI-S was 3.8±1.3 at endpoint . Fifty-nine percent of subjects received CGI-I ratings of 1 or 2 , ‘ much improved ’ or ‘ very much improved , ’ in terms of their depression and anxiety symptoms at the end of 12 weeks . Several patients showed an early ( weeks 1–5 ) , as well as sustained , response to augmentation with doses of aripiprazole between 15 and 30 mg/day . The results suggest that aripiprazole may be effective as an augmentation for patients with persistent depressive and anxiety disorders despite initial SSRI treatment . Because this is a retrospective case review , further prospect i ve studies are required to confirm these findings
Monotherapy with quetiapine seems to be efficacious in reducing symptoms of generalised anxiety disorder and this effect may be similar to that of antidepressants .
BACKGROUND Anxiety disorders are common and disabling conditions , with a lifetime prevalence of 17 % in the general population .
Due to high rates of treatment resistance , there is interest in new pharmacological treatment options such as second-generation antipsychotics .
OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of second-generation antipsychotics as monotherapy or adjunctive treatment for people with anxiety disorders .