In a letter to the New York Times (9/25, Subscription Publication), psychiatrist Jeffrey B. Freedman, MD, co-chair of the public affairs committee of the New York County branch of the American Psychiatric Association, wrote in response to Abuse of Xanax Leads a Clinic to Halt Supply (9/14, A1) that the article reminded him of a study (pdf) he “published 15 years ago demonstrating that an anti-anxiety drug similar in abuse potential to Xanax [alprazolam] can be stopped in a psychiatric clinic without a significant dropout rate.”
In addition to “switching to medications with less abuse potential to prevent withdrawal, the addition of therapy other than medication helped the patients,” Freedman pointed out. He concluded, “Good treatment for anxiety must continue to include talk therapy.”