ABSTRACT
Follow-up studies of patients receiving antidepressants, high-po tency benzodiazepines, and cognitive-behavioral therapies are consis tent with the assertion that panic disorder is frequently chronic; al though most patients improve with treatment, relatively few are persistently fully well over the long term. In one study of patients re ceiving initial treatment with a TCA, two-thirds of patients discon tinued their medication during the mean follow-up period of 2.5 years (range 1-4 years); half of the patients discontinuing their treatment did so because of side effects (10). At follow-up, two-thirds of patients were on some medication. Three-quarters of the patients had experi enced at least moderate levels of improvement, but only 14% were free of symptoms. In another study, 59% of panic patients remained symptomatic 3 years after participation in a placebo-controlled trial of diazepam and alprazolam (11).
