Long-term treatment of generalised anxiety disorder with Aviandr: results of a 36-week post-registration observational study

The management of patients with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is a pressing issue in modern medicine. A new Russian drug, Aviandr (maritupridine), has demonstrated efficacy and good tolerability in the treatment of GAD in clinical trials.

Objective: To study the effectiveness of treating GAD with Aviandr in real clinical practice.

Material and methods. An open-label, non-comparative prospective study included 98 patients over the age of 18 with a confirmed diagnosis of GAD. Patients received Aviandr therapy and were monitored on an outpatient basis for 36 weeks. Clinical-psychopathological and psychometric examinations were conducted before treatment and at 2, 8, 16, 24, and 36 weeks after the start of treatment. Anxiety symptoms were measured using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (structured interview, SIGH-A). Additionally, symptoms of depression (Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale – MADRS), cognitive functions (Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale – MoCA), and the somatic condition of patients were assessed.

Results. Aviandr has proven to be an effective drug for treating GAD. A statistically significant reduction in the total SIGH-A score was observed as early as the second week of therapy (from 22.06±5.80 before therapy to 19.12±5.91; p<0.001), followed by a progressive decrease by week 8 (14.12±5.44), week 16 (9.84±5.44), week 24 (7.44±5.13) and week 36 (6.90±6.20; p<0.001 for all visits). By the 36th week of therapy, the number of patients who responded to treatment (a decrease in the SIGH-A score by 50% or more from baseline) was 83.7%, and 66.7% of patients achieved remission (total SIGH-A score ≤7). Depressive symptoms on the MADRS scale decreased significantly from 14.60±7.62 at baseline to 4.15±5.33 at week 36 (p<0.001). Cognitive function scores on the MoCA scale improved significantly from 27.40±1.91 to 29.00±1.54 (p<0.001).

Conclusion. The use of Aviandr is an effective method of treating GAD. The therapeutic effect of the drug manifested itself gradually, demonstrating a progressive increase throughout the course of therapy, with maximum symptom reduction achieved by the 36th week of treatment.

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