The application of pregabalin in general anxiety disorders treatment. Should one be afraid of high doses?
Marcin Wojtera1, Tomasz Sobów1,2

General anxiety disorder is a chronic mental disorder with intensification and improvement stages alternately. Emotional, cognitive and physiological symptoms are present in its course (somatic anxiety symptoms), disturbing daily functioning of the patients in personal and professional life. The nuclear symptom is “free-floating anxiety” intensifying in various situations related to insecurity. The basic goal of treatment is remission. Both non-pharmacological methods (e.g. behavioural-cognitive psychotherapy) and pharmacotherapy are applied. Medicines of best, proven effectiveness as regards general anxiety disorder, recommended to be used as the first ones, are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors and pregabalin. In Poland, pregabalin – though registered – has been absent for many years from the psychiatric formulary – owing to high price and lack of refund with the indication “general anxiety disorder.” Currently, the situation has changed. Pregabalin is a derivative of gamma-aminobutyric acid, which shows no action similar to that acid. The substance is a ligand of the aiding subunit (α2-δ protein) opened through the change in the membrane tone of the calcium channel, which is present at the presynaptic neuron terminals localised in the brain and spinal cord. The combination of pregabalin with subtype 1 of subunit α2-δ (α2-δ-1) is responsible for anxiolytic operation, modulating pain impulse and anti-epileptic operation. Certainly, there is a possibility that the medicine operates in another, so far unknown mechanism, but up till now, there are no available data indicating that. The study covers and discusses the data available in bibliography concerning the application of pregabalin in clinical practice, its wide indications, safety profile and recommendations concerning dosage.