[Usefulness of antidepressants in anxiety disorders]

This article deals with four anxiety disorders particularly frequent in the population as well as in general practice: panic disorder, specific phobias, social phobia and generalized anxiety. After a brief description of their clinical characteristics and prevalence, it provides the general principles of treatment and mainly the specific role of antidepressants. Finally, for each disorder, a treatment algorithm based on available guidelines is proposed. Schematically, antidepressants and particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors exhibit a usefulness assessed as important in panic disorder, moderate in generalized anxiety, weak in social phobia and absent in specific phobias.