Letter to the Editor

Alpha Psychiatry 2022;23(3):142-143

DOI: 10.5152/alphapsychiatry.2022.21703

Desvenlafaxine Extended-Release in Panic Disorder: A Retrospective Chart Review

Sang Min Lee¹

Jin Kyung Park²

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Kyung Hee University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea

² Department of Psychiatry, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Corresponding author: Jin Kyung Park ✉ parkdawit@naver.com

Cite this article as: Lee SM, Park JK. Desvenlafaxine extended-release in panic disorder: A retrospective chart review. Alpha Psychiatry. 2022;23(3):142-143.

Dear Editor,

Serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are effective and safe pharmacotherapy for panic disorder; however, few evidences are available except for venlafaxine extended-release (ER).¹ Desvenlafaxine is known to cause a lower risk of drug interactions and less incidence of nausea as an adverse event (AE) than venlafaxine.² We performed a retrospective chart review of outpatients with panic disorder to investigate desvenlafaxine ER as another potential agent for panic disorder. Ethical committee approval was received from the Ethics Committee of Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong (approval number: KHNMC 2021-08-046) and informed consent waived by the IRB. Patients aged ≥18 years with panic disorder who were treated with desvenlafaxine ER from February 2014 to July 2021 were included. Clinical Global Impressions-Severity scale (CGI-S) and Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scale (CGI-I) were evaluated at weeks 1 (baseline), 12, 24, and 50. The response to the treatment was defined as CGI-I score of 1 (very much improved) or 2 (much improved).³ Remission was defined as CGI-S score of 1 (normal) or 2 (borderline mentally ill). Twenty-four patients were included, and data from 12 patients with a maintenance period of >12 weeks (4 men, 8 women; mean age, 33.1 years; standard deviation (SD), 13.3 years) were finally analyzed. Panic Disorder Severity Scale scores before medications were 17.7 (6.0) (mean (SD)). The duration of maintenance therapy was 36.7 (16.3) weeks. The mean maintenance dosage of desvenlafaxine ER was 158.3 (44.9) mg per day. Median CGI-S score was 6.0 (interquartile range (IQR) = 1.0) at week 1, 5.0 (IQR = 2.0) at week 12, 4.0 (IQR = 2.0) at week 24, and 3.0 (IQR = 2.0) at week 50. Clinical Global Impressions-Severity scale scores at week 12 were significantly lower than those at week 1 (n = 12, P = .002 using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test at a significance level of 0.05). Significant differences were found in CGI-S scores between weeks 1, 12, and 24 (n = 9, P = .002) and between weeks 1, 24, and 50 (n = 6, P = .003 using Friedman rank-sum test at a significance level of 0.05). Three (25%), 5 (55.6%), and 6 (100%) patients showed a response at weeks 12, 24, and 50, respectively. Three (25%), 3 (33.3%), and 2 (33.3%) patients achieved remission at weeks 12, 24, and 50, respectively. Overall, 11 (46%) patients reported treatment-emergent AEs, which were similar to those in previous studies.⁴,⁵ The number of comorbid diagnoses and concurrent medications was 0.9 (0.5) and 2.0 (1.5), respectively. Although there were a few limitations and weaknesses of retrospective chart reviews, these might be preliminary data concerning the efficacy and safety of desvenlafaxine ER. Hence, it could be considered a potential agent in panic disorder treatment in further prospective, controlled studies.

Ethics Committee Approval: Ethical committee approval was received from the Ethics Committee of Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong (approval number: KHNMC 2021-08-046).

Informed Consent: This study is a retrospective chart review, informed consent waived by the IRB.

Peer-review: Externally peer-reviewed.

Author Contributions: Concept – J.K.P.; Design – J.K.P.; Materials – S.M.L.; Data Collection and/or Processing – S.M.L., J.K.P.; Analysis and/or Interpretation – S.M.L., J.K.P.; Literature Review – J.K.P.; Writing – J.K.P.; Critical Review – S.M.L.

Declaration of Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Funding: The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.

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Received: August 19, 2021
Accepted: December 22, 2021

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