Dr. Bob's Psychopharmacology Tips

Buspirone for anxiety

Date: Wed, 12 Apr 1995 22:47:16 +0059 (EDT)
From: scole@world.std.com (Stanley Cole)
Subject: Buspirone for anxiety

I agree with the general opinion that for run of the mill anxiety, of the sort benzos are good for, most patients do not experience relief. I have, however, had some patients with generalized anxiety disorder who did exceptionally well on it. One woman called it a vitamin she had been missing all of her life. It seems to me that the patients who respond come in complaining of "stress." They experience extreme emotional reactions to external events, often feel like things are coming at them from all sides, are overwhelmed easily, overreact and often lose control. They report frequent irritability, throwing things or yelling at work or yelling at the kids for minor things.

They report the overreacting goes away on Buspar, and they feel calmer. It is similar to the experience of many of my patients on SSRIs who become less reactive to stress, being able to step back and think more clearly about how to handle a situation. Unlike the patients on SSRIs, patients on Buspar don't usually have sexual dysfunction.

I have also used it to decrease residual anxiety in patients with good responses to SSRIs.

Date: Thu, 25 May 1995 13:44:03 -0500
From: crismonl@MAIL.utexas.edu (M. Lynn Crismon)
Subject: Uses for buspirone

I've had good expereiences with buspirone in GAD, but I feel there is significant interindindividual variation in dosage requirements. I also tend to agree with those that say that patients never treated with BZDPs do better then those treated with BZDPs (particularly those that liked the BZDP effects).

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