Efficacy of duloxetine in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder in patients with clinically significant pain symptoms

Abstract

Anxiety disorders often are accompanied by painful physical symptoms. This report assessed the effectiveness of duloxetine in improving anxiety symptoms, pain severity, and patient functioning in adults diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), who presented with clinically significant pain symptoms. Data were pooled from two multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of duloxetine 60-120 mg once daily compared with placebo in the treatment of GAD. The primary patient population for these analyses was patients with baseline Visual Analog Scale (VAS) overall pain severity score > or =30. Of the 798 randomized patients that had baseline VAS scores, approximately 44.4% of GAD patients were identified as having baseline VAS overall pain severity score > or =30 (duloxetine N=208, placebo N=146). Duloxetine-treated patients had significantly greater improvement compared with placebo-treated patients on anxiety symptoms (measured by Hamilton Anxiety Scale total score), on patient functioning (measured by the Sheehan Disability Scale Global Functional Impairment Score and across all Sheehan Disability Scale domains), and on all VAS pain items. Patients achieving remission at endpoint, and patients with lower scores on the Clinical Global Impression of Improvement and Patient Global Impression of Improvement scales had greater improvement in VAS pain severity scores. These results suggest that in patients with GAD who present with clinically significant pain symptoms, duloxetine is effective in reducing anxiety symptoms, pain severity, and in improving patient functioning.