A Systematic Review On The Efficacy And Safety Of Pregabalin In The Treatment Of Anxiety Disorders

[Objective]: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of pregabalin monotherapyfor treating anxiety disorders.[Methods]: To search electronic databases CENTRAL、Pubmed、EMbase、Chinese Biomedical Literature Database and assess risk of bias in includedstudies using Cochrane Collaboration systematic review methods. Meta-analysiswas performed by software RevMan5.1.4.[Results]:12random control trials (RCTs) with3471participants wereincluded. Compared with placebo, responder rate showed a statisticallysignificant in pregabalin short-term treatment for generalized anxiety disorder(GAD)(P＜0.00001, RR=1.34,95%CI=1.20~1.50); time to relapse of GAD wassignificantly longer for patients in pregabalin long-term treatment (P＜0.0001，HR=0.4，95%CI=0.26~0.61); the reduction in the Hamilton Anxiety RatingScale (HAM-A) total score showed a statistically significant when switchingfrom long-term benzodiazepine therapy to pregabalin in patients with GAD (P＜0.00001，MD=-4.80，95%CI=-5.28~-4.32); responder rate showed a statisticallysignificant in pregabalin short-term treatment for social anxiety disorder (SAD) (P=0.02， RR=1.51，95%CI=1.07~2.13); time to relapse of SAD wassignificantly longer for patients in pregabalin long-term treatment for SAD(P=0.04，HR=0.49，95%CI=0.25~0.95); withdrawals due to adverse eventsdidn’t show statistically significant in short-term trial (P=0.07，RR=1.37，95%CI=0.98~1.91) or long-term trial (P=0.90，RR=1.12，95%CI=0.21~5.98).[Conclusion]: Pregabalin is an efficacious and safety therapy for GAD.Pregabalin shows some effectiveness in treatment of SAD, in preventing relapseof GAD and SAD, facilitating taper off chronic benzodiazepines in patients withGAD. But the reliable conclusion can not be drawn because of the limitednumber of RCT, the small total sample size and the high withdrawal rate. Thelarge multicenter RCTs which are rigorous design are needed to investigate thegenuine effectiveness of pregabalin.