Agomelatine in the treatment of panic disorder.

摘要

Panic disorder (PD) is a common and often chronic psychiatric condition associated not only with negative outcomes from both emotional and physical standpoints but also with significant disruptions in several areas of an individual's life (Cassano et al., 1992). A major culprit is the poor compliance of PD patients, whose attrition rates (i.e., the number of drop out cases during treatment) are as high as 50% despite the availability of effective treatments (Cassano et al., 1992). Non-compliance may be due to a number of factors, including high susceptibility of PD patients to somatic iatrogenic side effects that are facilitated by biological factors, such as vegetative hyper-reactivity (Svensson, 1987), and psychological factors. In fact, the attitude of PD patients toward medications, especially psychiatric drugs, is generally phobic (i.e., characterized by a fear of "dependence" and "toxicity") with a tendency for misinterpretation, and this prevents them from completely relaxing and trusting the therapist (Fornaro et al., 2009).