Current medical research and opinion
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
A double-blind, long-term study of tizanidine ('Sirdalud') in spasticity due to cerebrovascular lesions.
A double-blind study was carried out in 30 patients suffering from spasticity due to cerebrovascular lesions to compare the long-term efficacy and tolerability of tizanidine hydrochloride with that of baclofen. A 2-week titration phase identified the optimum dose of tizanidine (max. 20 mg/day) or baclofen (max. 50 mg/day) in each patient. Patients were then treated with this dose for a 50-week maintenance phase. ⋯ Side-effects in the tizanidine group were mild and transient and no patients discontinued the study; in the baclofen group, 3 patients discontinued the study due to severe side-effects. However, both drugs were assessed as effective and fairly well tolerated in the long-term. Although there were no statistically significant differences between the two drugs, the global assessment of antispastic efficacy revealed a nearly significant difference (p = 0.057) in favour of tizanidine and the global assessment of tolerability was also in favour of tizanidine.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Etizolam in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder associated with depressive symptoms.
A double-blind study was carried out in 30 female patients with generalized anxiety disorders associated with depressive symptoms to compare the effectiveness and tolerability of etizolam and alprazolam. Patients were allocated at random to receive one or other drug at a dosage of 0.5 mg twice daily for 5 weeks. ⋯ Although there was no statistically significant difference between the two drugs, there was a trend for etizolam to be more effective in relieving anxiety somatization symptoms. Apart from moderate daytime drowsiness in a few patients, both drugs were considered to be extremely well tolerated.