Abstract
The efficacy of hydroxyzine and buspirone, controlled by placebo, was investigated in a double-blind, parallel group, multicentre study conducted in France and the UK. A total of 244 patients with generalised anxiety disorder in primary care was allocated randomly to treatments with hydroxyzine (12.5 mg morning and mid-day, 25 mg evening), buspirone (5 mg morning and mid-day, 10 mg evening) or placebo (three capsules/day) for 4 weeks, preceded by a 1-week single-blind placebo run-in and followed by 1-week single-blind placebo administration. Rating scales were applied on days -7,0,7,14,12,28 and 35. Seventy percent of the patients were female; the average age was 41 ± 11 years, and the mean Hamilton Anxiety Score at day 0 was 26.5 ± 4.2. Only 31 of the 244 patients dropped out, but equally in the three groups. Intention-to-treat LOCF analyses on the primary variable showed a significant difference only between hydroxyzine and placebo with respect to improvement on the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (10.75 versus 7.23 points, respectively). Secondary variables such as CGI and self-ratings (HAD scale) showed both hydroxyzine and buspirone to be more efficacious than placebo. Thus, hydroxyzine is a useful treatment for GAD.
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Received: 26 January 1998/Final version: 15 May 1998
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Lader, M., Scotto, JC. A multicentre double-blind comparison of hydroxyzine, buspirone and placebo in patients with generalized anxiety disorder. Psychopharmacology 139, 402–406 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002130050731
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002130050731