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 ) .
Maintenance drug treatment of panic disorder. I. Results of a prospective, placebo-controlled comparison of alprazolam and imipramine.
One hundred six patients diagnosed according to DSM-III as suffering from agoraphobia with panic disorder , panic disorder with limited phobic avoidance , or uncomplicated panic disorder entered an acute 8-week treatment phase . Patients who improved received an additional 6 months ' maintenance treatment . Significantly more patients treated with alprazolam than with imipramine hydrochloride or placebo remained in therapy and experienced panic attack and phobia relief during the acute treatment phase . During the maintenance phase , neither tolerance nor daily dose increase was observed . All patients who completed the maintenance phase ( 27 in the alprazolam group , 11 in the imipramine group , and 10 in the placebo group ) were panic free at the end of 8 months of study treatment . Alprazolam therapy was effective and well tolerated at a mean daily dose of 5.7 mg . Imipramine hydrochloride ( 175 mg/d ) also produced significant panic relief but was associated with poor patient acceptance
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 ) .