Potential treatment paradigms for anxiety disorders.

The current classification system of anxiety disorders allows us to match treatment with the particular form of disorder presented. The first part of this paper presents the main features of each anxiety disorder with the approved pharmacological treatment. Despite progress in this field, treatment has to be improved to resolve resistant symptoms and to eliminate adverse side effects of the drugs currently used. The efficacy of antidepressants in chronic anxiety disorders as compared to classic 'anxiolytics' has been shown. For treatment of acute phase of anxiety, new drugs have been proposed as an alternative to benzodiazepines (BZD), but to date, no individual agent has demonstrated a better effectiveness. Interesting results may be provided by drugs acting on CCK receptors or with 5HT blockers. Preliminary results are listed and prospects in the field are proposed. The discussion focuses on an improved definition of anxiety and on the overlap of anxiety symptoms with those of depression.