When alprazolam was compared with placebo for reduction in symptoms all estimates indicated a positive effect for alprazolam .
The RD of all-cause withdrawals did not differ between alprazolam and placebo .
Alprazolam appears to reduce depressive symptoms more effectively than placebo and as effectively as tricyclic antidepressants .
Whilst the rate of all-cause withdrawals did not appear to differ between alprazolam and placebo , and withdrawals were less frequent in the alprazolam group than in any of the conventional antidepressants combined group , these findings should be interpreted with caution , given the dependency properties of benzodiazepines
BACKGROUND The ' off-label ' effect of alprazolam on depression has not been systematic ally evaluated .
OBJECTIVES To determine the antidepressant effect , including tolerability and acceptability , of alprazolam as monotherapy for major depression , when compared to placebo and conventional antidepressants in out patients and patients in primary care .
Antidepressant or antianxiety? A study of the efficacy of antidepressant medication
The authors analyzed the relative contributions of improvement in depressive and anxiety symptoms , as measured by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression ( HRSD ) and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety ( HRSA ) , respectively , after 1 week of treatment to the prediction of improvement in HRSD score after 6 weeks of antidepressant pharmacotherapy .  Fifty-six subjects completed 6 weeks of treatment with either desipramine ( n = 20 ) , alprazolam ( n = 18 ) , or a desipramine-alprazolam combination ( n = 18 ) . The results showed that early improvement in the HRSD was a moderately strong predictor of the total 6-week improvement in HRSD score , and a better predictor than early improvement in the HRSA . Partial correlations showed that early HRSD improvement was significantly related to total HRSD improvement within the alprazolam group . This pattern of response differed from those observed for the other treatment groups . Desipramine-treated subjects showed gradual improvement over the course of the study , and the improvement in week 1 was not so strongly predictive of overall improvement . The relationship between early and total HRSD improvement for the combination treatment group was intermediate to the other two groups . These findings are discussed in the context of the relationship between depression and anxiety , and potential implication s for the treatment of these overlapping and often mixed syndromes
When alprazolam was compared with placebo for reduction in symptoms all estimates indicated a positive effect for alprazolam .
The RD of all-cause withdrawals did not differ between alprazolam and placebo .
Alprazolam appears to reduce depressive symptoms more effectively than placebo and as effectively as tricyclic antidepressants .
Whilst the rate of all-cause withdrawals did not appear to differ between alprazolam and placebo , and withdrawals were less frequent in the alprazolam group than in any of the conventional antidepressants combined group , these findings should be interpreted with caution , given the dependency properties of benzodiazepines
BACKGROUND The ' off-label ' effect of alprazolam on depression has not been systematic ally evaluated .
OBJECTIVES To determine the antidepressant effect , including tolerability and acceptability , of alprazolam as monotherapy for major depression , when compared to placebo and conventional antidepressants in out patients and patients in primary care .