Antidepressant therapy

What are the pros and cons of antidepressant therapy? Why you should stop taking your antidepressants? What is the best anti-depressant with the least side effects?

New antidepressant therapies with novel mechanisms that limit unwanted side effects will offer alternative therapeutic options to treat depressed patients in primary care as well as specialist settings. When you initiate antidepressant therapy for patients who have not been treated for depression previously, select either sertraline or escitalopram. A large meta-analysis found these medications to be superior to other “new-generation” antidepressants.

Strength of recommendation. A: Meta-analysis of 1high-quality studies. Because antidepressant therapy is usually relatively well-tolerate expert consensus statements recommend having a low threshold for initiating treatment.

Psychostimulants and SSRIs are the main pharmacological treatment modalities for depression at the end of life (Table 33-1). Women with severe depression and with a prior history of depression can be treated with a combination of antidepressant medication and psychotherapy. Before World War II, these drugs did not exist. Patients who are using antidepressant therapy should be closely monitored by family and healthcare providers for suicidal signs and symptoms. Antidepressants alter the amount of neurotransmitters in the brain.

Anyone considering the use of antidepressant in a child or adolescent must balance this risk of suicide with the clinical need for the drug.

Contact a healthcare provider immediately if changes in depression symptoms or behavior occur, or if signs of a possible suicide emerge. Patients who are started on therapy should be closely observed for clinical worsening, suicidal thoughts or unusual changes in behavior. Therapy and “the big picture” in depression treatment. One of the hallmarks of depression is feeling overwhelmed and having trouble focusing.

Therapy helps you step back and see what might be contributing to your depression and how you can make changes. Here are some of the “big picture” themes that therapy can help with: Relationships. If you have major depressive disorder (MDD), you’re likely already taking at least one antidepressant. Combination drug therapy is a type of treatment that many doctors and psychiatrists have. All available antidepressants are effective, and for most cases of depression, there is no good evidence that any antidepressant is more effective than another is.

But one appears to work faster, while the other may be more effective. A list of depression medications (antidepressants ). The following are some of the depression medications (antidepressants ) available in the U. They are sometimes prescribed along with antidepressant therapy , but should not be taken alone for a. Augmentation therapy involves adding a second agent, but one that is not routinely regarded as an antidepressant , to the therapeutic regimen when there is only a partial response to the. Our study will provide the first controlled data on the efficacy of the two major antidepressant drug classes in F and the first data on clinical, physiological and genetic factors that may predict a beneficial effect of such therapy in FD.

However, antidepressant use in children and teens must be monitored carefully, as rarely there can be severe side effects. Unlike more traditional forms of therapy , it focuses on “here and now” problems and difficulties. Numerous clinical studies throughout the world have consistently demonstrated that cognitive behavioral therapy is as effective as antidepressant medication.

We aimed to re-examine some of the salient issues in antidepressant therapy vis-à-vis cardiovascular considerations, which should be taken into account when prescribing such medications.

Evidence supporting the use of antidepressant drugs is poor and the technique of electromagnetic brain stimulation is still in its infancy. Augmentation using an antidepressant with established efficacy may also be referred to as combination therapy. This may be more effective than other options, but it carries the risks of polypharmacy, such as drug-drug interactions and increased adverse-effect burden.

Read our guest columnist, psychiatrist and forensic psychiatric expert, Dr. Rupali Chadha-Flynn’s column on antidepressant therapy in pregnancy. You may have to try several treatments before you find something that works for you. Your health care professional may first suggest an antidepressant medicine or talk therapy (also called counseling).

One type of talk therapy is called cognitive behavioral therapy.