Treatments

Anxiety symptoms exist on a continuum and many people with mild degrees of anxiety, particularly of recent onset and associated with stressful life events, will experience an improvement without specific treatment.

However, the chronic nature and associated disability of many disorders means that most patients who are diagnosed with an anxiety disorder are likely to benefit from some form of treatment.  The need for treatment is determined by the severity and persistence of the symptoms, together with the level of disability and impact on social functioning.

There are a number of effective treatment options. The first step is to consult your doctor, who will be able to suggest the treatment most likely to be effective for your particular disorder, and that best suits you as a person.

Amongst the most widespread forms of treatment are:

• Medicinal treatment including
  • SSRIs – the first-line treatment
  • SNRIs
  • Benzodiazepines
  • Buspirone
  • Tricyclic anti-depressants
  • Other medication, eg antipsychotic drugs
• Psychotherapy including
  • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
  • Anxiety management training
• Physical treatments, eg electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) – very rarely used

Although there is considerable overlap between effective therapies for the different anxiety disorders, there are also important differences (discussed in the sections on individual disorders). 

You can read in more detail about different forms of treatment in this section.