Generalised anxiety disorder drug treatment

Figure 19.8 A schematic representation of the GABAa receptor shift hypothesis. This proposes that patients with panic disorder have dysfunctional GABAa receptors such that the actions of drugs that behave as antagonists in normal subjects are expressed as inverse agonism in panic patients. It is unlikely that this theory extends to generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), for which benzodiazepine agonists are highly effective treatments, but it could explain why these drugs are relatively ineffective at treating panic disorder. (Based on Nutt et al. 1990)...

SramekJJ, Zarotsky V, Cutler NR. Generalised anxiety disorder treatment options. Drugs. 2002 62 1635-1648. 

Vaz-Serra A, Figueira ML, Bessa-Peixoto A, Firmino H, Albuquerque R, Paz C, Dolgner A, Vaz-Silva M, Almeida L. Mexazolam and alprazolam in the treatment of generalised anxiety disorder. Clin Drug Invest 2001 21 257-63. 

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