Clonazepam in the treatment of social phobia: a pilot study.

Author(s): Munjack DJ, Baltazar PL, Bohn PB, Cabe DD, Appleton AA

Affiliation(s): Department of Psychiatry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Publication date & source: 1990-05, J Clin Psychiatry., 51 Suppl:35-40

Publication type: Clinical Trial; Randomized Controlled Trial

Twenty-three patients who met DSM-III-R criteria for social phobia were randomly assigned either to a clonazepam treatment group or to a nontreatment control group in an 8-week pilot study. Clonazepam was found to have a significant effect on the treated patients, as demonstrated by scores on a variety of instruments measuring overall anxiety and phobic avoidance, and social phobic symptoms. Initial sedation, which was experienced by 70% of the treated subjects, was the most common side effect of clonazepam treatment and usually resolved spontaneously or with dose reduction. The preliminary findings of this pilot study are sufficiently promising to warrant further study of the efficacy of clonazepam in this condition.