It can be difficult to cope with anxiety attacks, but there are effective treatments and therapies. Sometimes you have to try several or combine them, but the vast majority of people manage to reduce or even eliminate their seizures in a few weeks or months thanks to these measures.

therapies

The effectiveness of psychotherapy in treating anxiety disorders is well established. It is even the treatment of choice in many cases, before having to resort to drugs.

To treat anxiety attacks, the therapy of choice is cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT⁶. In practice, CBTs generally take place over 10 to 25 sessions spaced a week apart, individually or in groups.

The therapy sessions aim to provide information on the state of panic and to gradually modify the “false beliefs”, the errors of interpretation and the negative behaviors associated with them, in order to replace them with more knowledge. rational and realistic.

Several techniques allow you to learn to stop seizures, and to calm down when you feel anxiety rising. Simple exercises should be done week to week in order to progress. It should be noted that CBTs are useful in reducing symptoms but their objective is not to define the origin or the cause of the emergence of these panic attacks. It may be interesting to combine it with another type of psychotherapeutic treatment (analytical, systemic therapy, etc.) in order to prevent the symptoms from moving and reappearing in other forms.

pharmaceuticals

Among pharmacological treatments, several classes of drugs have been shown to reduce the frequency of acute anxiety attacks.

Antidepressants are the treatment of first choice, followed by benzodiazepines (Xanax®) which, however, present a greater risk of dependence and side effects. The latter are therefore reserved for the treatment of the crisis, when it is prolonged and treatment is necessary.

In France, the two types of antidepressants recommended⁷ to treat panic disorders over the long term are:

• selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the principle of which is to increase the amount of serotonin in the synapses (junction between two neurons) by preventing the reuptake of the latter. In particular, paroxetine (Deroxat® / Paxil®), escitalopram (Seroplex® / Lexapro®) and citalopram (Seropram® / Celexa®) are recommended;
• tricyclic antidepressants such as clomipramine (Anafranil®).

In some cases, venlafaxine (Effexor®) may also be prescribed.

Antidepressant treatment is first prescribed for 12 weeks, then an assessment is made to decide whether to continue or change the treatment.