The effect of nefazodone on comorbid anxiety symptoms associated with depression: experience in family practice and psychiatric outpatient settings

Abstract

Retrospective analysis of two randomized, placebo-controlled trials evaluated the effectiveness of nefazodone in relieving depression-associated anxiety symptoms of patients with major depression in two practice settings. One study involved depressed patients (N = 138) treated in a family practice setting, the other, psychiatric clinic outpatients (N = 180). Nefazodone treatment was broadly effective across several measures of anxiety symptoms (HAM-D, HAM-A and SCL rating scales) in relieving depression-associated anxiety. The comparison drug, imipramine, was also found to be more effective than placebo treatment, although the treatment effect on depression-associated anxiety, as measured by several factors, was less than that seen with nefazodone. A subgroup of psychiatric clinic outpatients with comorbid major depression and panic disorder (N = 55) was identified by blinded record review. During nefazodone treatment, patients with panic disorder experienced marked global improvement compared with placebo-treated patients, including relief of panic and phobic anxiety symptoms. Imipramine treatment was not significantly better than placebo for improvement in depression and anxiety ratings in this patient group. These results extend previous findings indicating that the new antidepressant nefazodone effectively relieves anxiety and depressive symptoms of patients with major depression.