Anxiety Medication and Side Effects

The The Center for Whole Psychiatry + Brain Recovery approach recognizes that because all medications have side effects, and many people are on multiple medications (which often cause dangerous and even life threatening interactions) good medical practice dictates that we strive to avoid medication use, make it temporary or use the lowest effective dose. Achieving this goal is possible because the need for medication is lower when all bodily systems are harmonized, malfunctioning systems are corrected, and functioning optimally.
Side effects of medication are very common, and vary with the type of medication. See the chart below for details.
In traditional psychiatric practices, various medications are commonly used to stabilize aspects of the anxiety circuitry in the brain, and for the most part traditional psychiatrists now prescribe medications to combat all of the anxiety disorders. Specific medications work for specific aspects of anxiety disorders.

Anxiety Medication for Panic and Anxiety Attacks

• SSRI’s (serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are the most common first line medication for nearly all anxiety disorders. These include fluoxetine (Prozac), citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro), sertraline (Zoloft), fluvoxamine (Luvox)
• SNRI’s (serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) are also commonly used first line for anxiety disorders and there is some reason to believe they may be more effective than the SSRI’s listed above, for panic and anxiety attacks. These include duloxetine (Cymbalta), venlafaxine (Effexor), and desvenlafaxine (Pristiq).
• Tricyclic antidepressants (imipramine), and MAO Inhibitors such as phenylzine (Nardil) are the most effective drugs of the tricyclic and MAO inhibitor classes, which are second or third-line choice for panic and anxiety attacks. Clomipramine (Anafranil) is useful for obsessive compulsive disorder, as is fluvoxamine (Luvox)
• Benzodiazepines: are commonly used for the anticipation of a panic attack (anticipatory anxiety) or to relieve general anxiety. Buspirone (Buspar) is a medication which is useful in this regard, but unlike the benzodiazepines, is not addictive.
• Mood stabilizers: Valproic Acid (depakote) has anti anxiety, anti-OCD, and anti-panic activity. Some of the medications in the anti-psychotic class (such as quetiapine (Seroquel) have effects on anxiety and OCD-but not much effect on panic attacks.
• Supplements: If a person has a genetic test that shows they are positive on both chromosomes for the COMT genetic mutation, they may have a reduction in anxiety with the use of folic acid or SAM-e.

The Antidepressant Medications (listed alphabetically)

* Note nearly all can cause weight gain and sexual dysfunction.

Key

Upper case – significant effect; Lower case – minor effect

• A, a – Dry Mouth, Constipation, Blurry Vision.
• B, b – Sedation
• C, c – Dizziness on Standing
• N, n – Nausea
• H, h – Headache
• I, i – Insomnia
• T, t – Hypertension
• D – Depression
• AD/HD – Attention Deficit Disorder
• Anx – Anxiety

• Bld – Monitoring of the level of medication in the patient’s blood is necessary.
• C – Chronic Pain
• M – Migraine
• O – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• P – Panic Disorder
• SP – Social Phobia
• U – Ulcers
• SOM – Somatization Disorder

Commonly Used Benzodiazepines*

*(Listed in alphabetical order)