An Overview of National and International Guidelines on Pharmacological Treatment of Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is a prominent anxiety disorder that is associated with significant impairment in social functioning. Treatment of panic disorder typically involves both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, with pharmacotherapy playing an important role. Numerous countries, including Korea, have continuously developed and published clinical guidelines for optimizing the pharmacological treatment of panic disorders. In this article, we review the treatment guidelines for panic disorder issued by Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the World Federation of Biological Psychiatry, and Korea. In this study, we aimed to summarize the current main practices, provide foundational data to inform the development of future Korean treatment guidelines, and identify potential areas for clinical strategy improvement.