Use of Benzodiazepines in Social Anxiety Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Benzodiazepines are advantageous treatments for anxiety disorders because they work quickly.However, benzodiazepines can vary in terms of efficacy across anxiety disorders. Benzodiazepineshave been found to be a superior treatment in social anxiety disorder. While benzodiazepines areeffective in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, other treatments such as selective serotoninreuptake inhibitors may be more effective. Also, research indicates that benzodiazepines may not beeffective in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Therefore, physicians need to consider thetype of anxiety disorder before prescribing a benzodiazepine as a treatment.