The Prescription of Benzodiazepines for Panic Disorder

Benzodiazepines are among the most frequently prescribed classes of psychotropic me-dications1. They are effective and well tolerated, and they should be prescribed as carefully and judiciously as any other medication. Clinicians and investigators recognize their benefits for ma-ny anxious patients, but some medical “propagandists” 2 have popularized a critical view of the-se medications, which has intruded into the media and even into general medical opinion. For example, because of the possibility of dependence on benzodiazepines, many recent treatment guidelines recommend selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) as the first-line choice for the treatment for panic disorder (PD). Such recommendations are mainly based on the opinions of some experts and on clinical trials of SSRIs, but evidence from direct drug comparisons of ben-zodiazepines and SSRIs in PD is sparse1. This non-data-based preference for non-benzodiazepine treatments deprives patients with anxiety disorders of potentially valuable treatment with benzo-diazepines.