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Escitalopram in specific phobia:results of a placebo-controlled pilot trial

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
² Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
³ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center,Durham, NC, USA.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

	Abstract

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of escitalopram in treatingspecific phobia. Method: The study was performed in an academic medicalcenter. Adults meeting DSM-IV criteria for specific phobia were randomlyassigned to 12 weeks of double-blind treatment with escitalopram orplacebo. Efficacy measures included the Main Phobia Scale (MPS), theMarks Fear Questionnaire (FQ) and the Clinical Global Impressions ofImprovement (CGI-I) scale. Data were collected between September 2002and September 2004. Results: Of 13 subjects enrolled, 12 returned for atleast one post-randomization visit and were included in the intent totreat sample. Response rates on the various subscales of the MPS and theFQ ranged from 20 to 80% for escitalopram, compared to 0-43% withplacebo. Rates of response using the CGI-I scale were 60% for escitalopramand 29% for placebo, with a strong between treatment effect infavor of the drug at week 12 (effect size _ 1.13). Using the last observationcarried forward, no statistically significant treatment differenceswere found. The drug was well tolerated. Conclusion: Treatment responsewas consistently greater for escitalopram than for placebo, with strongeffects observed in favor of the drug. However, treatment differences onthe primary outcome measures were not significant in this under-poweredpilot study. Escitalopram may hold promise as a treatment for specificphobia and larger randomized controlled trials are needed.

Key Words: escitalopram, SSRI, specific phobia, simple phobia, clinical trial

First published on January 21, 2008, doi:10.1177/0269881107080796

Journal of Psychopharmacology 2008;22:157.

A more recent version of this article appeared on March 1, 2008


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