I am not familiar with hydroxyzine, but buspar has a very low success rate, it barely beats the placebo, bit for people that it does work on they love it. It's just doesn't have a very high success rate. Zoloft on the other hand has a higher success rate for anxiety then buspar! Only problem with zoloft is if your atypical or bipolar while it still helps with the anxiety, it can either stop working or dpression or mania can increase. Unfortunately the best thing for anxiety is still benzo's and pdocs are reluctant to prescribe them for long durations but some pdocs understand the benefit out weighs the risk and will for last resort. Good luck!