Anxiety Drug & Medication Info
The role that medication plays in treating each of these disorders varies with the disorder and the patient. Medications are not cure-alls and, if used, should be only one aspect of a comprehensive treatment program. There may be certain stages of treatment during which medication is appropriate and other times when it could actually interfere with treatment success (especially when patients use anxiety medication during pregnancy). Also, the relative role played by a drug will vary from patient to patient, with some finding that medicine alone is quite satisfactory, others that it is either not effective or not tolerated, and still others that it plays an important role when combined with other treatment approaches.
Frequently, medication is prescribed for anxiety that is distressing yet not part of a specific Anxiety Disorder. In such circumstances, the cause of the anxiety may be readily apparent, and the medicine is used to relieve symptoms until the problem is resolved. It is important to realize that many people being treated with best anti anxiety medication are not diagnosed as having formal Anxiety Disorders.
If you are unsure why a certain drug (or drugs) is being used, ask your doctor. There is absolutely no reason why you should not fully understand the nature of your treatment program. In fact, full understanding of why drugs and other treatments (such as behavior therapy or psychotherapy) are used, and their potential benefits and risks, is a necessary part of treatment and understanding how long anxiety treatments take. Providing and obtaining this information is a responsibility shared by both doctor and patient.
As with all medicines, drugs used to treat anxiety are double-edged swords: They can relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life, but they can also cause unwanted side effects. The proper use of these drugs requires a skillful combination of science and art, which becomes possible when there is a close collaboration between patient and doctor.
Antianxiety, such as antidepressants for anxiety, are used primarily to treat anxiety, although some are also useful for treating other conditions. Antianxiety drugs are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the world. You may sometimes hear them referred to as anxiolytics or minor tranquilizers.
In the past, barbiturates such as phenobarbital and amojital (Amytal) were used extensively to treat anxiety— here was little else available. Today, these medications have en largely replaced by drugs that are safer with regard of overdose, abuse, and side effects. Most doctors insider these drugs totally outmoded for treating anxiety and no longer prescribe them. An exception is that phenosital is still widely used as an effective anticonvulsant for treatment of epilepsy.
Meprobamate is one of a class of drugs known as carbamates that were widely prescribed in the 1950s and 1960s. It is still in use today. Meprobamate is now the only one of the carbamates currently marketed for the treatment of anxiety in the United States. While best known under the brand names of Equanil and Miltown, it is also marketed as Meprospan and SK-Bamate and, in combination with other drugs, as Deprol, Equagesic, Mepro Compound, PMB, and Pathibamate. Meprobamate has all of the disadvantages of the barbiturates and questionable antianxiety effects. We feel that meprobamate has little role in modern medicine and do not recommend it for the treatment of anxiety.
While the antihistamines are primarily used for conditions other than anxiety (hay fever and other allergies, motion sickness, etc.), they also have an antianxiety-sedative effect. The two drugs in this group most likely to be used to treat anxiety (see Table 4) are diphenhydramine (dye-fen-HI-dra-meen) (Benadryl, Allerdryl, BayDryl) and hydroxyzine (hye-DROX-i-zeen) (Atarax, Vistaril, BayRox, Durrax, Neucalm, Orgatrax). Unlike the benzodiazepines (see below), these drugs do not carry the risk of tolerance, habituation, and dependency. In certain individuals, this feature may be quite important. On the other hand, they are somewhat less well tolerated than the benzodiazepines and, therefore, not as widely used.
The Beta-Adrenergic Blocking Agents
Beta-adrenergic blocking agents are also known as beta-blockers or beta-adrenergic receptor blockers. The names come from the action of these drugs in preventing nerve impulses from stimulating a special type of nerve ending known as the beta receptor.
These drugs are used primarily to treat high blood pressure, heart pain (angina), and irregularities of the heart beat (arrhythmias), and to prevent recurrences of heart attacks and migraine headaches. While beta-blockers have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for marketing as antianxiety drugs, they may be helpful in certain circumstances.
