A COMPARISON OF THE SAFETY AND EFFICACY OF ALPRAZOLAM VERSUS OTHER AGENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ANXIETY, PANIC, AND DEPRESSION - A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

A review of the worldwide published literature was conducted to assess the efficacy and safety of alprazolam for the treatment of anxiety di sorders, panic disorder, and depression in comparison with those of ot her active drugs (including other benzodiazepines and antidepressant m edications). In all, a total of 8878 patients participated in the 84 a ctive-drug-controlled studies that were reviewed: 3574 were treated wi th alprazolam, 3666 were treated with another active drug, and 1638 we re treated with placebo. Two general findings emerged: (1) Alprazolam demonstrates efficacy for the treatment of anxiety disorders, panic di sorder, and depression in the large majority of studies; for these ill nesses, it appeared equal in efficacy to the active agents with which it was compared. (2) Medical events, such as depression, suicidality, hostility/aggression, mania/psychosis, abuse, withdrawal reactions, an d seizures, were reported infrequently or not at all for alprazolam an d the comparator drugs; there were no marked differences between drug classes in the frequencies of these events.