Pharmacological Therapy in Panic Disorder: Current Guidelines and Novel Drugs Discovery for Treatment-resistant Patient

Panic disorder (PD) being one of the most intensively investigated anxiety disorders is considered a heterogeneous psychiatric disease which has difficulties with early diagnosis. The disorder is recurrent and usually associated with low remission rates and high rates of relapse which may exacerbated social and quality of life, causes unnecessary cost and increased risk for complication and suicide. Current pharmacotherapy for PD are available but these drugs have slow therapeutic onset, several side effects and most patients do not fully respond to these standard pharmacological treatments. Ongoing investigations indicate the need for new and promising agents for the treatment of PD. This article will cover the importance of immediate and proper treatment, the gap in the current management of PD with special emphasis on pharmacotherapy, and evidence regarding the novel anti-panic drugs including the drugs in developments such as metabotropic glutamate (mGlu 2/3) agonist and levetiracetam. Preliminary results suggest the anti-panic properties and the efficacy of duloxetine, reboxetine, mirtazapine, nefazodone, risperidone and inositol as a monotherapy drug. Apart for their effectiveness, the aforementioned compounds were generally well tolerated compared to the standard available pharmacotherapy drugs, indicating their potential therapeutic usefulness for ambivalent and hypervigilance patient. Further strong clinical trials will provide an ample support to these novel compounds as an alternative monotherapy for PD treatment-resistant patient.