Don’t panic. A guide to tryptophan depletion with disorder-specific anxiety provocation

Abstract

The 2002 paper “Does 5-HT restrain panic? A tryptophan depletion study in panic disorder patients recovered on paroxetine” by Bell and colleagues – reprinted in this issue of the Journal – reports on a study undertaken in the halcyon days of David Nutt’s Psychopharmacology Unit at the University of Bristol, England. In this invited commentary authors of the original work discuss the impact of this paper on the field of acute tryptophan depletion research (especially in the field of clinical anxiety disorders) and the development of disorder-specific anxiogenic provocations over the past decade.