Buspar

Let’s talk about Buspar. It’s one of those agents that sits in a weird, almost lonely category in the psychopharmacology cabinet—not quite an SSRI, definitely not a benzodiazepine. When a patient presents with that classic, diffuse, worrying anxiety without the panic attacks or the need for immediate sedation, and they’re terrified of addiction or the emotional blunting from SSRIs, Buspar often comes to mind. I remember first prescribing it in residency, skeptical because it wasn’t the hammer we were used to.