40 patients with panic attacks, chronic algesic
syndromes (chronic headaches of tension, cardialgias) entered the study.
They
also had depression of mild or moderate degree. 65% of the patients denied
actively disorders of the mood; 80% were sure that they had a severe disease
that was difficult to diagnose; most of them doubted the efficiency of therapy
with psychotropic preparations. An analysis of the polymorphism of clinical
symptomatology of the masked depression revealed in more than half of the
patients some combinations of clinical syndromes, such as autonomic
dysfunction, algesic manifestations, motivation and insomniac disorders.
A
structure of panic attacks was characterized by the prevalence of the
autonomic symptoms as compared with the anxious ones. All the patients were
treated with tianeptine (37.5 mg/day) during six weeks. The therapy was
effective in 67.5% of the patients. The study revealed an equal efficiency of
the drug in comorbid depressive, anxious and autonomic disorders as well as a
good tolerance.