Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology Chapter 6. Antianxiety Agents Sections: Introduction, Benzodiazepines, Antidepressants, Anticonvulsants, Antipsychotics, Noradrenergic Agents, Antihistamines, Buspirone, Barbiturates, Meprobamate, Bibliography. Topics Discussed: anti-anxiety agents. Excerpt: "Anxiolytic agents—usually defined in the past as chiefly the benzodiazepines—are the most commonly used psychotropic drugs. The vast majority of prescriptions for these medications are issued by internists, family practitioners, and obstetricians. Psychiatrists write less than 20% of the prescriptions for anxiolytics in this country, reflecting, in part, the fact that most anxious patients never see psychiatrists. Moreover, anxiolytics are prescribed for a wide variety of patients who do not have a primary anxiety disorder—namely, patients who present to primary care physicians with somatic complaints or true somatic disease.Antianxiety agents may be divided into many subclasses, of which the benzodiazepines are the most frequently prescribed. Several of the subclasses of anxiolytics (e.g., benzodiazepines) include agents marketed primarily as hypnotics (e.g., flurazepam). In this manual, we have separated the pharmacological treatments of anxiety from those of insomnia. The distinction, however, is rather artificial, because almost any..." DOI: 10.1176/appi.books.9781585622825.236739 The content above is only an excerpt. For full access subscribe now or log into your account below. You can also purchase 24- or 48-hour access; learn more Username: Password:   FORGOT your subscriber username and/or password? Get a reminder via email: The email I registered with is:  Not a subscriber? Subscribe Today PsychiatryOnline is a powerful website that features DSM-IV-TR® and The American Journal of Psychiatry as the cornerstones of an unsurpassed collection of psychiatric references, including books, journals, and self-assessment tools. PsychiatryOnline’s innovative platform makes these resources easy and convenient to use, offering Precise and powerful searching across books and journals. Quick pathways to related material. Mobile access from any computer with a Web connection. Ability to download any book section to PDA. Links from bibliographic references to the full text of journal articles. References to material not located in the PsychiatryOnline collection lead you to PubMed. Learn more about PsychiatryOnline Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing PsychiatryOnline@psych.org or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.).