Figure 6.

Rebound anxiety in patients treated with diazepam or bromazepam who were abruptly withdrawn. The figure shows anxiety scores (HAM-A) for three arms in the study: patients who were treated with BZ but then either discontinued drug abruptly (blue line) or discontinued drug gradually (green line), the study included also a placebo arm (black line). After abrupt drug discontinuation the symptoms of anxiety not only return to pre-treatment state, but there is also a rebound of anxiety (red arrow), that is a worsening of the symptoms above disease baseline. However, the gradual drug discontinuation does not produce the rebound and is similar to placebo arm. Adapted from Fontaine et al. (1984).