Clobazam Versus Diazepam—A Double‐Blind Study in Anxiety Neurosis

Abstract

Clobazam, a new antianxiety compound, was compared in a double-blind study with diazepam in 40 neurotic outpatients. Twenty-three patients completed the trial under clobazam conditions while 17 patients completed the trial under diazepam conditions. The trial was conducted for a period of four weeks of active drug administration followed by a one-week period of placebo administration. Clobazam was administered in three divided doses of 30 to 40 mg/day, while diazepam was administered in three divided doses of 15 to 20 mg/day, following a fixed dosage schedule. No significant differences were noted between the two treatment conditions during the drug trial period. The patients on clobazam maintained greater improvement during the placebo trial period for the variables "somatic anxiety" and "nights of sleep disturbance." Simultaneous motor coordination tests (hand steadiness test) showed greater improvement on clobazam throughout the trial period in patients with an initial error score greater than 50 points. This difference was significant during the second week of the trial.

The effect of clobazam and lorazepam on the psychomotor performance of anxious patients.

“…This trend also emerged in patients (Doongaji et al, 1979;Salkind et al, 1979;Hill et al, 1981) although these latter studies can be criticized for using only a limited range of psychomotor measures.…”

Review of clinical studies on clobazam.

“…(Thomson, 1958;Jick et al, 1966) revealed that nitrazepam was a much more potent hypnotic in comparison with clobazam, whereas the latter's sleepfacilitating effect was somewhat stronger than that of placebo. Kesson et al (1978) (Doongaji et al, 1978;Salkind et al, 1979). These findings are of special importance, because clobazam's main indication is the treatment of disorders in out-patient settings.…”

Psychomotor function and psychoactive drugs.

“…Fine motor control Using a hand steadiness task and a Whipple Tracing Board, Doongaji et al (1979) were able to show improved motor co-ordination following repeated dosing with clobazam 10 mg in a group of anxious patients. Trail making tests (Reitan, 1958) have shown both dexamphetamine 30 mg/kg body weight and psilocybin 0.2 mg/kg impair trail making performance (Duke & Keeler 1968).…”

“…, a concept identification task; Jones, Lewis & Spriggs (1978), a group vigilance task; Bond & Lader (1975), the cancellation of 4's; Jones, Jones, Lewis & Spriggs (1979), category clustering; Aschoff, Becker & Weinert (1975), saccadic eye movements; Gagne & Fleishman (1959), the rudder control test; Fleishman & Hempel (1956), multiple limb co-ordination; Jones (1958), an auditory discrimination test; Hindmarch (1975), the choice reaction time task; Hindmarch (1977a), simulated night time car driving performance; Biehl (1979), actual car driving ability; Wittenborn et al (1979), spontaneous reversals of the Necker cube; Taeuber (1977), two handed cordination; Doongaji, Sheth, Apte, Lakdawala, Khare & Thatte (1979) used Whipple's tracing board and Hindmarch & Clyde (1980a, b), a trigram recognition task.…”