Mark Pollack, M.D., Massachusetts General Hospital
Question: How long does it take for medications to work for anxiety disorders?
Answer: Among the two major classes of antianxiety medications, there is a difference in terms of how quickly they tend to start working. Antidepressant medications -- the so-called fluoxetine or Prozac-like drugs -- start to work over a period of weeks -- two, three weeks. Patients may start to feel less anxious and experience improvement in things like sleep and some of their other anxiety symptoms. For patients who take benzodiazepines -- these are the Xanax (alprazolam) or Klonopin (clonazepam)-type drugs -- relief of anxiety tends to be more rapid, often occurring in hours or days.
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