Treatment of comorbid generalized anxiety in a recently detoxified alcoholic population with a selective serotonergic drug (buspirone).

Recent literature has addressed a common dyad: alcoholism and anxiety. Both disorders have been interdigitated with the brain amine serotonin. We investigated 51 dually diagnosed patients (generalized anxiety/alcohol abuse:dependence) in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of the serotonin partial agonist buspirone. Buspirone was superior to placebo as an anxiolytic, was well tolerated, and was associated with both a reduction in the number of days desiring alcohol and an overall clinical global improvement.