The review established the paucity of high quality evidence investigating the efficacy of psychotherapy combined with benzodiazepines for panic disorder .
Currently , there is inadequate evidence to assess the clinical effects of psychotherapy combined with benzodiazepines for patients who are diagnosed with panic disorder
BACKGROUND The efficacy of combining psychotherapy and benzodiazepines for panic disorder is unclear , despite widespread use .
OBJECTIVES To examine the efficacy of the combination compared with either treatment alone .
Memory functions, alprazolam and exposure therapy: a controlled longitudinal study of agoraphobia with panic disorder.
Benzodiazepines ( BZs ) produce transient antero grade amnesia when given to normal subjects . The present longitudinal study assessed whether BZs impair memory functions in a clinical ly anxious group . Eighty-two agoraphobics with panic disorder were r and omly allocated to one of four treatment groups result ing from a combination of two drug treatments ( alprazolam or placebo ) and two psychological treatments ( exposure or relaxation ) . Of these , 38 subjects were assessed on a range of objective and subjective indices of memory and mood at three time points : before treatment , after 8 weeks of treatment and again at 24 weeks when patients had been free of medication from 5 - 8 weeks . Alprazolam produced pronounced impairments on a word recall task . At the 24-week medication-free follow-up , alprazolam patients were still impaired on the task compared with placebo patients . Alprazolam did not impair performance on an implicit memory task and did not affect digit span . Differences between psychological treatments emerged mainly in subjective memory effects . Findings are discussed in terms of the specificity of BZ-induced amnesia and differential tolerance to the varying effects of BZs . Implication s are drawn out for the patient 's ability to function optimally in daily life while taking alprazolam
The review established the paucity of high quality evidence investigating the efficacy of psychotherapy combined with benzodiazepines for panic disorder .
Currently , there is inadequate evidence to assess the clinical effects of psychotherapy combined with benzodiazepines for patients who are diagnosed with panic disorder
BACKGROUND The efficacy of combining psychotherapy and benzodiazepines for panic disorder is unclear , despite widespread use .
OBJECTIVES To examine the efficacy of the combination compared with either treatment alone .