Our review confirms the usefulness of long-term pharmacological treatments for PD and GAD and suggests that they can provide further improvement over that obtained during short-term therapy .
Paroxetine , escitalopram , and clonazepam can be effective for long-term treatment of PD .
Pregabalin and quetiapine can be effective for long-term treatment of GAD , while preliminary suggestions emerged for agomelatine and vortioxetine .
We did not find any evidence for determining the optimal length and /or dosage of medications to minimize the relapse risk .
Many aspects of long-term pharmacological treatments for  anxiety disorders ( AnxDs ) are still debated .
We undertook an up date d systematic review of long-term pharmacological studies on panic disorder ( PD ) , generalized anxiety disorder ( GAD ) , and social anxiety disorder ( SAD ) .
Remission of Generalized Anxiety Disorder after 6 Months of Open-Label Treatment with Venlafaxine XR
Background : Remission has become one of the leading outcome criteria in clinical trials . Data collected by this research group assessed the rate of remission after 6 months of treatment of generalized anxiety disorder ( GAD ) with venlafaxine XR , to search for predictors of remission and to define how early on in treatment later remission can be predicted . Method : Two hundred sixty-eight patients with a GAD diagnosis enrolled into an open-label 6-month-treatment trial with venlafaxine XR ( 75 - 225 mg/day ) . Remission was defined by a Hamilton anxiety scale total score ≤7 . Logistic regression approaches were used to find out how early on in treatment later remission could be predicted , as well as to determine predictors of remission . In addition , adverse events were also followed over time . Results : While the total enrolled patient sample ( n = 268 ) had a remission rate of 53 % , 6-month completers ( n = 159 ) had a remission rate of 79 % . The only statistically significant predictor of remission , independent of baseline anxiety and depression levels , was a low Eysenck neuroticism score . The remission status outcome could best be predicted after 8 weeks of treatment when a CGI-I score of 1 or 2 predicted later remission with 78 % accuracy and later nonremission with 91 % accuracy . The incidence of adverse events decreased over the 6-month period , with sexual adverse events decreasing the least . Conclusion : The only significant predictor of remission was a low score on the Eysenck neuroticism scale . The earliest reliable prediction of later remission , based on improvement , could be made after 8 weeks of treatment with 91 % accuracy
Our review confirms the usefulness of long-term pharmacological treatments for PD and GAD and suggests that they can provide further improvement over that obtained during short-term therapy .
Paroxetine , escitalopram , and clonazepam can be effective for long-term treatment of PD .
Pregabalin and quetiapine can be effective for long-term treatment of GAD , while preliminary suggestions emerged for agomelatine and vortioxetine .
We did not find any evidence for determining the optimal length and /or dosage of medications to minimize the relapse risk .
Many aspects of long-term pharmacological treatments for  anxiety disorders ( AnxDs ) are still debated .
We undertook an up date d systematic review of long-term pharmacological studies on panic disorder ( PD ) , generalized anxiety disorder ( GAD ) , and social anxiety disorder ( SAD ) .