JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH 3

Panel--Research Perspectives

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES: INDUSTRY ISSUES

JERRY R. MITCHELL

The Upjohn Company, 7000 Portage Road, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49001, U.S.A.

Studies have suggested that the cost of panic disorder is exceptionally high; in the United States alone the cost is nearly $20 billion per year. Panic disorder causes a high level of work loss and social disability, increased substance abuse, and increased mortality risks. Left untreated, panic disorder can profoundly affect the vigor of our society.

The development of a model for the diagnosis and treatment of panic - - a collaborative effort that began in the early 1980s when industry joined with academia and government to determine the prevalence of this disease - - has truly made for a Decade of Progress. As we begin the 1990s, the psychiatric community is better able to respond to the needs of its patients. Psychiatrists today can more effectively assess and treat what only recently was an unrecognized disorder.

Yet, we need to continue our progress, to continue seeking the most appropriate diagnostic and pharmacologic tools to intervene in panic and clinical anxiety. Some observers are challenging the use of benzodiazepines and other pharmacologic agents based on nonscientific, anecdotal claims - - many of them in the lay press. We need to understand the parallel between the effectiveness of a medication and its side-effect profile. What's more, we need to understand that the side effects of available medications, although sometimes severe, pale in comparison with the effects of untreated panic and anxiety.

We must not deny effective treatment to patients in need based on anecdotal information that is poorly collected and poorly documented. We must, instead, continue our battle together against panic and anxiety. We must rely on good science to carry us through another Decade of Progress.