Forty patients, presenting with symptoms of anxiety of 1 month to 35 years' duration, were studied before and during the administration of propranolol in the total daily dose of 40 to 160 mg, as well as during placebo substitution, for periods varying from 1 to 40 months.
Before treatment, while in the upright position and to a greater extent during voluntary hyperventilation, they invariably exhibited an increase in severity of the symptoms with acceleration of the heart rate, and in 14 patients there was also induction or accentuation of ST segment depression, or T wave inversion, or both, abolished promptly