Alprazolam, which is a high-potency benzodiazepine, is effective against anxiety disorders that are complicated by depression. People with this combination of symptoms who begin treatment may find that their anxiety symptoms worsen when they begin anti-depressant medication. Alprazolam helps control those anxiety problems until the anti-depressant takes effect. Though alprazolam works quickly and has fewer side effects than anti-depressants, it is rarely the medication of first choice because it has a high potential for dependency. Its side effects include drowsiness, impaired coordination, impaired memory and concentration, and muscular weakness.

Another anti-anxiety medication, buspirone, has different side effects than those sometimes caused by benzodiazepines. Though it has little potential for dependency and doesn't cause drowsiness or impair coordination or memory, buspirone can cause insomnia, nervousness, light-headedness, upset stomach, nausea, diarrhea, and headaches.

Medications for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder -- which causes repeated, unwanted and often very disturbing thoughts and compels repetition of certain ritualistic behaviors -- is a painful and debilitating mental illness. A person with obsessive-compulsive disorder might, for instance, develop a fear of germs that compels him or her to wash his or her hands so often that they continually bleed.

Though obsessive-compulsive disorders are officially classified as anxiety disorders, they respond best to anti-depressant medications. In February 1990, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved clomipramine, a heterocyclic anti-depressant, for use against obsessive-compulsive disorder. This medicine acts on serotonin, a neurotransmitter thought to affect mood and alertness. Though this medicine may not take full effect for two or three weeks, it is effective in reducing the uncontrollable thoughts and behaviors and the devastating disruptions they cause in a person's life.

Clomipramine's side effects, like those of all heterocyclic antidepressants, may include drowsiness, hand tremors, dry mouth, dizziness, constipation, headache, insomnia.

While its use in treating anxiety disorders has not yet been approved by the FDA, fluoxetine has shown some promise in research.

Anti-Panic Medications

Like other anxiety illnesses, panic disorder has both physical and mental symptoms. People suffering from a panic attack often think they are having a heart attack: their heart pounds; their chest is tight; they sweat profusely, feel they are choking or smothering, have numbness or tingling around their lips or their fingers and toes, and may be nauseated and chilled. Panic attacks are so terrifying and unpredictable that many victims may begin to avoid places and situations that remind them of those under which previous panic attacks occurred. Over time the victim may even refuse to leave home.

Currently, many psychiatrists may prescribe alprazolam for people who suffer with panic attacks. However, as already stated, this medication can cause dependency when used for an extended period. Once an anti-depressant has taken effect, physicians treating panic with alprazolam and an anti-depressant in tandem will usually reduce the alprazolam dosage slowly.

Learning new ways of thinking, modifying behavior, learning relaxation techniques and participating in support groups are among the non-medication treatments that are also important parts of the overall treatment plan for panic disorder.

While alprazolam is the only medication the FDA has approved for treatment of panic disorder, research continues into the positive effects of other medications as well.

In clinical trials panic disorder has responded well to heterocyclic anti-depressant medications. In fact, antidepressant medications such as imipramine have been effective in reducing panic symptoms in 50 to 90 percent of the patients studied. When combined with psychological and behavioral treatments, the effectiveness of the medications increases. When the panic symptoms lessen, the patient can begin working with the psychiatrist in understanding his or her illness and coping with its effects on daily life.

Likewise, studies have suggested that MAOIs such as phenelzine or tranylcypromine can be as effective as heterocyclic anti-depressants in the treatment of panic.

Fluoxetine, which is also awaiting FDA approval for treatment of panic, has had promising results in tests of its effects on panic.

Antipsychotic Drugs

Psychosis is a symptom, not a disease. It can be part of several mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. It also can be a symptom of physical illnesses such as brain tumors, or of drug interactions, of substance abuse, or of other physical conditions.

Psychosis alters a person's ability to test reality. A person may suffer from hallucinations, which are sensations that he or she thinks are real but don't exist; delusions, which are ideas which he or she believes despite all proof that they are false; and thought disorders, in which his or her thought processes are chaotic and illogical.

Schizophrenia is the mental illness most often associated with psychosis. Researchers do not know the specific causes of schizophrenia, though most believe that it is primarily a physical brain disease. Some believe that the neurotransmitter dopamine is involved with the hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders and blunted emotional responses of this mental illness. Most medications prescribed for schizophrenia affect the dopamine levels in the brain at the same time they reduce the extremely painful mental and emotional symptoms.