Q. I'm writing for a friend who has had panic attacks for the last 2 years. She has gone through quite a lot of alternative health therapies, some conventional medication (e.g.. Xanax), a bit of hypnotherapy all to no avail, and the situation with the panic attacks is now reaching a crisis point. I just came across your web site - well done, it is one of the best for information that I have seen anywhere.
I am keen to help my friend find some relief. Do you have any listings of therapists skilled in using CBT for anxiety disorders? Also any other info you have, maybe about medications, etc would be helpful. One of the main problems has been the lack of information amongst the medical profession about panic attacks. Some GP's have prescribed medication without even having any idea of the side effects or contraindications. My friend has even seen a top neurologist at large expense whose final words were, "Well I think you may have what is called panic attacks". As if she didn't know that. Anyway thanks again for the site.

A. Have you spoken with anyone from the Dept of Psychology at your local University? There is a very good chance they are running a CBT clinic for Anxiety Disorders. If not the Psychologists there would be able to refer you on to a clinical psychologist in your area. The operative word being Clinical. The clinical psychologists have the full CBT training.

Hypnotherapy doesn't work for most people. It may help in the short term but like every other therapy main stream and alternate it won't give long term results. CBT is the only therapy which has been demonstrated internationally to give long term results.

In regards to medication. Is your friend still taking Xanax? In Australia the guidelines for the prescribing of any of the tranquillizers is for 2 - 4 weeks only. The tranquillizers, including Xanax can be addictive and some people may become addicted within four weeks. Xanax is one of the short acting tranquillizers. With the short acting ones, if people do become addicted they may have withdrawal symptoms every 4 to 6 hours. We usually recommend people use medication to assist with any depression which may come as a result of the attacks and/or the Disorder, but our experience over the years, which has been confirmed by international research, is that medication is not a long term answer. People can remain symptomatic and their Disorder can return when they withdraw. The current trend is to prescribe SSRIs, including Zoloft or Aropax. It can take up to six weeks before people can begin to feel the benefit of these drugs. Some people experience an increase in their anxiety for the first few weeks on these drugs. There is some very recent research which is showing people may experience drug withdrawal from the SSRIs once they begin to taper down their dose. The research is recommending people don't just stop taking the drug, but withdraw very very slowly.

Some of the Anxiety Disorder psychiatrists prefer to use the older anti depressants because there may not be the side effects with the older anti depressants.

Unfortunately GPs don't have the training, nor do some of the psychiatrists have the latest training such as CBT. No matter how much pressure we put on the Federal Government nothing happens. When you consider the Anxiety Disorders are the most common mental health problem in Australia one would think the Government even if it doesn't care about Social Justice issues would care about the extraordinary waste of money through Medicare. If they cared, they would do something about providing the much needed appropriate treatment services throughout Australia.

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