Patients with panic disorder unaccompanied by depression improve with alprazolam and imipramine treatment

Patients with panic disorder (N = 1168) were enrolled in a multicenter, 8-week, double-blind clinical trial of imipramine, alprazolam, and placebo to analyze whether the effectiveness of these agents is dependent on the depressive/dysphoric symptomatology which often coexists in panic disorder patients. In addition to analyses performed on the whole sample of patients, the authors conducted analyses on a subsample (N = 312) defined by multiple criteria to ensure the absence of depression and dysphoria. In both the overall sample and the nondepressed subsample, the clinical response to imipramine or alprazolam was found to be independent of the presence of depression or dysphoria. In panic disorder patients for whom pharmacotherapy is being considered as treatment, the absence of depression is apparently not a contraindication.