An observational study comparing the efficacy of duloxetine and pregabalin in patients with generalized anxiety disorder

Introduction There were many studies that compare the efficacy and tolerability of different medications in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), but there are no published studies that compare the efficacy of duloxetine and pregabalin in patients with GAD. Objectives 1) to investigate the efficacy of duloxetine versus pregabalin and 2) to investigate the tolerability and safety of duloxetine versus pregabalin in patients with GAD in daily clinical practice. Method the study was conducted as a prospective, observational study. The study sample consisted of patients diagnosed with GAD. Patient therapy was based on the use of duloxetine or pre gabalin. If clinical evaluation indicated that there were indications for the use of Benzodiazepine anxiolytics the pharmacological treatment included these medications. Monitoring the effectiveness of treatment included monitoring the change in score on the GAD-7 questionnaire, as well as monitoring the occurrence of side effects. Results the sample included 105 patients. Patients had an average of high intensity of anxiety symptoms at the beginning of treatment - GAD-7=17.36 (SD=2.98). In all patients individually, the GAD-7 total score was impaired and the arithmetic mean of the difference score was 7.46 (SD=2.27) points. Patients in the duloxetine-treated group had a decrease in the total GAD-7 score, and the arithmetic mean of the difference score was 7.12 (SD = 1.91) points, and for the pregabalin-treated patients, the arithmetic mean of the total GAD -7 score scale was just over 8 points. Patients treated with duloxetine had statistically significant symptoms of GAP - 11.31 (SD-3.14) vs pregabalin 8.71 (SD-4.02), but there was no statistically significant difference in GAD-7 scores after one month of treatment compared to the study group (p = 0.172). Conclusion the results of the present study indicate that duloxetine and pregabalin have proven to be successful drugs in reducing the overall GAD-7 score in patients with GAP during the initial treatment period. Based on this, it can be concluded that duloxetine and pregabalin are successful drugs for the treatment of patients with GAP in the initial treatment period.