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Cognitive toxicity of pharmacotherapeutic agents used in social anxiety disorder
1University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK. ian@psychopharma.co.uk
Objective:
To compare cognitive impairment of medications used in social anxiety disorder (SAD).
Methods:
Data from peer-reviewed publications (1975-2007) of controlled, crossover design, pharmacodynamic studies on SAD medications in healthy volunteers were analysed. The number of objective psychometrics for each drug/dose level at all time points after dosing, and of instances of statistically significant impairment of cognitive function, enabled calculation of drug-induced cognitive impairment. The magnitude of impairment between drugs was compared using proportional impairment ratios (PIRs).
Results:
Olanzapine, oxazepam, lorazepam and mianserin had twice the average cognitive toxicity of other treatments. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) impaired cognition to a lesser extent than other pharmacological groupings. There was extensive intra-class variation: fluvoxamine (PIR = 0.08) possessed little detrimental cognitive activity, whereas sertraline (PIR = 5.33) caused impairment over five times the SSRI group average. Benzodiazepines caused noticeable cognitive impairment.
Conclusions:
Substantial differences exist, both between and within therapeutic classes, in the behavioural toxicity of medications used for SAD.
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