Predicting the Relief of Anxiety With Meprobamate: An Attempt at Replication

Nonpharmacologic factors affecting anxiety relief were compared in two independent samples of psychoneurotic patients treated four or six weeks with meprobamate or placebo. Patient reports of anxiety relief were analyzed with respect to medication, some 20 characteristics of patient and treatment, and the interaction of medication with each characteristic. The results indicate that anxious neurotic outpatients who are black and better educated are likely to respond best to the act of pill-taking in general, whereas the specific pharmacologic effect of meprobamate is likely to be most helpful with patients who are older and less enthusiastic about pill-taking. Patients taking meprobamate improved more in one sample, whereas patients taking placebo improved more in the second sample. The effect of more experienced therapists in the second sample probably washed out the effect of meprobamate in that sample.