what drugs are used to treat panic disorder?
For anxiety disorders, benzodiazepines are most often used to treat panic disorder, and are sometimes used for social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. These drugs include alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), and lorazepam (Ativan).
Imipramine (Tofranil) is the medication for panic disorder that has been most thoroughly studied, with at least 10 double-blind, placebo-controlled studies supporting its efficacy in the acute treatment of panic disorder.6 Clomipramine (Anafranil) has shown similar results in several double-blind trials as well.
Tricyclics used for treatment of anxiety disorder include imipramine (Tofranil, for generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder), nortriptyline (Pamelor, for panic disorder), desipramine (Norpramin, for panic disorder), and clomipramine (Anafranil, for obsessive compulsive disorder).