In my clinical practice a couple of patients were willing to continue antidepressants but not etifoxine because of "how it made them feel".
In practice it has nowhere close to the efficacy of benzos and it so far seems less useful than antidepressants. Then again, SSRIs are far more effective in real life than the internet makes it out to be. It could also be difference of population, as I practice in India.
Etifoxine came in with great hype into the Indian market but so far it really hasn't taken off that well. The Pharma people leaned a bit too hard into the non-inferiority results with things like alprazolam and lorazepam which even feels a lot like BS at face value that something that anxiolytic doesn't have ANY comparable sedation to benzos, (made me kinda immediately suspicious tbh. )Also, for what could be achieved by a PRN or SOS dosing of Propranolol or a Benzos for very situationally and occassionally impairing anxiety that doesn't amount to a disorder....this thing apparently has to be dosed daily thrice.(That's what the Pharma people marketed it as, non sedating anxiolytics for mild to moderate anxiety provoking situations experienced during routine daily life). They shouldn't have hyped it so much IMO. Of course it is worth trying in some subgroup of patients, just haven't found them yet...
In my clinical practice a couple of patients were willing to continue antidepressants but not etifoxine because of "how it made them feel".
In practice it has nowhere close to the efficacy of benzos and it so far seems less useful than antidepressants. Then again, SSRIs are far more effective in real life than the internet makes it out to be. It could also be difference of population, as I practice in India.
Thanks for sharing. This post is a few years old at this point & my views on the drug have changed somewhat.
(And yes agreed, SSRIs get so much hate despite being very effective antidepressants for many pts)
Etifoxine came in with great hype into the Indian market but so far it really hasn't taken off that well. The Pharma people leaned a bit too hard into the non-inferiority results with things like alprazolam and lorazepam which even feels a lot like BS at face value that something that anxiolytic doesn't have ANY comparable sedation to benzos, (made me kinda immediately suspicious tbh. )Also, for what could be achieved by a PRN or SOS dosing of Propranolol or a Benzos for very situationally and occassionally impairing anxiety that doesn't amount to a disorder....this thing apparently has to be dosed daily thrice.(That's what the Pharma people marketed it as, non sedating anxiolytics for mild to moderate anxiety provoking situations experienced during routine daily life). They shouldn't have hyped it so much IMO. Of course it is worth trying in some subgroup of patients, just haven't found them yet...