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 ) .
2nd year maintenance and discontinuation of imipramine in panic disorder with agoraphobia.
BACKGROUND The results from our 1 year placebo-controlled maintenance/discontinuation study in remitted panic disorder with agoraphobia patients confirmed the significant prophylactic effectiveness of imipramine maintenance treatment but suggested that this may be necessary in only 37 % of the patients who relapse following discontinuation of 6 months acute imipramine treatment . This paper presents pilot data from a second year extension of the above-mentioned study with the aim of exploring the putative protective effects of maintenance imipramine therapy beyond the 1st year . METHOD Eighteen patients from the 30 who survived , in stable remission , the first 12 months of the maintenance/discontinuation study gave written consent to participate in a double-blind 2nd year extension phase with the knowledge that those on placebo will continue on the same condition ( N = 7 , PBO-PBO ) and those on imipramine ( N = 11 ) will be rer and omized to 2nd year maintenance ( N = 4 , IMI-IMI ) or placebo substitution ( N = 7 , IMI-PBO ) . The procedures continued unchanged from that of the 1st year of the study and patients were followed with planned assessment s every 2 months over the second 12-month experimental period of the study . RESULTS None of the IMI-IMI patients relapsed , two ( 28.5 % ) of the IMI-PBO patients relapsed , and two ( 28.5 % ) of PBO-PBO patients relapsed . The mean estimated time without relapse was 10 months and 9 months for IMI-PBO and PBO-PBO , respectively . The estimated probability of not relapsing was .64 for IMI-PBO and .60 for PBO-PBO ( Mantel-cox test chi2 = .84 , p = .77 ) . CONCLUSION These interlocking controlled observations tentatively suggest that a substantial degree of prophylactic efficacy continues and that a substantial need for continued prophylaxis exists beyond the 1st year of maintenance imipramine treatment in panic disorder with agoraphobia patients
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 ) .