Buspirone for anxious women in a primary care environment - A multicenter open evaluation

This open study evaluated anxiolytic therapy with buspirone in chronically anxious women and simulated typical clinical practice in a primary care environment. Buspirone successfully treated approximately 70% of these women with persistent anxiety. Some major characteristics of their anxiety included a duration of over one year, frequent emotional problems, precipitating stress in half of the cases, and usually prior psychotropic drug treatment. Both menstruating women and postmenopausal women responded to buspirone based on multiple patient and physician global assessments. An interesting observation was that women with more severe premenstrual tension (PMT) experienced a greater anxiolytic response with buspirone. The most common adverse effects were headache, dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, and dry mouth. Sedation was not a problem. In summary, the women stated that buspirone was helpful (69%), it was better than or equal to previous anxiolytic treatment (83%), and the women were willing to continue buspirone treatment (75%).