Drug help for panic attacks

Anti-depressant drugs could cure the very shy of panic attacks, anxious nausea and blushing, a Danish pharmaceutical firm says.

Jarne Elleholn, managing director of Lundbeck, said he hoped year-long trials would show the drug was able to end the anxiety-induced misery that at least one in 15 people suffers from at some stage.

After a six-month course which would cost about £100 ($344), social phobia sufferers could be cured of their fears, Mr Elleholn said.

The remedy, Escitalopram, is in the same group of drugs as the anti-depressant Prozac, which boosts the release of mood-enhancing serotonin in the brain.

"It's broadly speaking similar to Prozac," said consultant psychiatrist Dr Martin Turner. "It addresses an underlying dysfunction."

Mr Elleholn said patients would start with a lower dosage than those suffering from depression and gradually raise the dose.

- REUTERS

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