ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the possibility of deriving etiological insights from the pharmacological treatment of anxiety. However, since many drugs useful for affective disorders are also useful for anxiety disorders, a review of the relationship between receptor changes and clinical benefits may prove illuminating for the anxiety area. Multiple measures of anxiety and depression as well as global clinical improvement showed an overall superiority of imipramine as well as greater efficacy for panic attacks. In contrast, clomipramine (CLO) was associated with significant improvement on measures of obsessions, anxiety, and depression. Several other investigators have reported promising results with CLO for obsessive-compulsive disorder patients in placebo-controlled trials, comparison with behavioral treatment, and in open studies. Successful treatment should allow inferences concerning possible components of the pathophysiological derangement. Parallels between the infant separation model and the clinical treatment of human anxiety disorders would suggest one etiological possibility.
