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 ) .
Treatment-related alteration of cortisol predicts change in neuropsychological function during acute treatment of late-life anxiety disorder.
OBJECTIVE Older adults with anxiety disorders are burdened by impairment in neurocognition , which may be mediated by elevated circulating cortisol levels . In a r and omized controlled trial of acute serotonin-reuptake inhibitor treatment for late-life anxiety disorder , we examined whether change in salivary cortisol concentrations during treatment predicted improvements in measures of memory and executive function . METHODS We examined 60 adults aged 60 years and older , who took part in a 12-week trial of escitalopram versus placebo for generalized anxiety disorder . All subjects had pre-treatment and post-treatment assessment s that included monitoring of peak and total daily cortisol  and a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation . RESULTS Salivary cortisol changes during treatment showed significant associations with changes in immediate and delayed memory but no association with executive tasks ( measures of working memory and set shifting ) . Analyses suggested that a decrease in cortisol due to serotonin-reuptake inhibitor treatment was responsible for the memory changes : memory improvement was seen with cortisol reduction among patients receiving escitalopram but not among patients receiving placebo . CONCLUSION Serotonin-reuptake inhibitor-induced alteration in circulating cortisol during treatment of generalized anxiety disorder predicted changes in immediate and delayed memory . This finding suggests a novel treatment strategy in late-life anxiety disorders : targeting hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal axis dysfunction to improve memory
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 ) .