Vortioxetine for generalised anxiety disorder in adults

The currently accepted psychopharmacological treatment for generalised anxiety disorder in adults is associated with several adverse effects which threaten its acceptability. In this line, vortioxetine has been proposed as an alternative with less adverse effects in the treatment of this pathology.

We searched in Epistemonikos, the largest database of systematic reviews in health, which is maintained by screening multiple information sources, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, among others. We extracted data from the systematic reviews, reanalyzed data of primary studies, conducted a meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table using the GRADE approach.

We identified seven systematic reviews including five primary studies, all corresponding to randomized trials evaluating the effectiveness of vortioxetine in adult patients with generalized anxiety disorder without current treatment. We conclude that there is uncertainty whether vortioxetine increases the response to treatment or improves anxious symptoms, because the certainty of the existing evidence has been assessed as very low. Furthermore, vortioxetine may increase nausea (low certainty evidence).