Vignette: Most Effective Treatment for a Man with Sudden Episodes of Anxiety

A 30-year-old man presented with episodes of sudden anxiety, palpitations, chest tightness, and a feeling of impending doom. These episodes occur about 4-5 times per month for the last 7 months and last about 10 minutes on average. They have carried his physical examination and laboratory evaluation out, which is inconclusive about biological causation for his condition.

What would be the most effective treatment option?

Cognitive therapy
Fluoxetine
Imipramine
Amitriptyline
Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Controlled studies have shown that cognitive therapy is at least as effective as antidepressant medication in the treatment of the panic disorder (Mitte, 2005). Combined treatment with medication and psychotherapy may cause a better response in the acute phase than either treatment modality given alone, but probably not in the longer term. In the longer-term medication alone may have a less good outcome than either psychotherapy alone or combined treatment. However, not all studies agree on this point (Furukawa and Watanabe, 2006; van Apeldoorn et al., 2010).

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