The management of severe agoraphobia: A comparison of iproniazid and systematic desensitization
Sixty out-patients with severe agoraphobia took part in a controlled prospective clinical trial of combinations of methohexitone-assisted and standard systematic desensitization and monoamine oxidase inhibitor. Severity of agoraphobia in terms of avoidance and anxiety was rated both by the patients themselves and by an independent assessor during the eight weeks of treatment. The monoamine oxidase inhibitor produced a significant reduction in severity of anxiety but not of avoidance. Methohexitone-assisted systematic desensitization appeared to produce significantly greater improvement than either standard systematic desensitization or no systematic desensitization in both anxiety and avoidance. Assessors' ratings showed that the monoamine oxidase inhibitor used in conjunction with methohexitone-assisted systematic desnsitization produced slightly greater clinical improvement than the other treatment combinations.