Generic Name | Brand Names | Drug Family | Use |
| amitriptyline | Elavil, Typtanol, Saroten, Tryptizol | tricyclic | antidepressant |
| bupropion | Wellbutrin, Wellbutrin SR, Odranal | aminoketone | antidepressant |
| citalopram | Celexa | SSRI | antidepressant |
| clomipramine | Anafranil | heterocyclic | antidepressant |
| desipramine | Norpramin, Pertofran | tricyclic | antidepressant |
| doxepin | Adapin, Sinequan, Zonalon | tricyclic | antidepressant |
| fluvoxamine | Luvox | SSRI | antidepressant |
| fluoxetine | Prozac | SSRI | antidepressant |
| mirtazepine | Remeron, Remeron SolTab | tetracyclic | antidepressant, antipanic |
| nefazodone | Serzone | phenylpiperazine | antidepressant |
| nortriptyline | Aventyl | tricyclic | antidepressant |
| paroxetine | Paxil, Aropax | SSRI | antidepressant |
| reboxetine | Vestra, Edronax, Norebox | sNRI | antidepressant |
| sertraline | Zoloft | SSRI | antidepressant |
| trazodone | Desyrel, Trialodine | triazolopyridine | antidepressant |
Category: Medication for Mood Disorders
Untreated depression and antidepressants may both affect unborn child – The Washington Post
THE QUESTION How might an unborn child’s development be affected if the mother takes antidepressants during pregnancy?
THIS STUDY involved 7,696 pregnant women, most of them 27 to 30 years old. Of the 669 women in the group who had symptoms of depression, 570 women took no antidepressants, and 99 took selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) antidepressants. During pregnancy, those in the SSRI group had fewer depressive symptoms than the other 570 women. All participants in the study had periodic sonograms to measure fetal growth, including body weight and head size, which is considered an indicator of brain development. Among the women with untreated depression, fetal growth overall was slower compared with the fetuses of all other study participants. Among women who took SSRIs, fetal weight gain was not different but head sizes were the smallest, on average; their babies also were twice as likely to be born prematurely. No link was found between symptoms of depression and below-normal birth weight.
via Untreated depression and antidepressants may both affect unborn child – The Washington Post.
Let’s All Trash Antidepressants (Not!)
I recently read an excerpt of the book A Brief History of Anxiety by Patricia Pearson, in which she more or less trashes every aspect of psychiatric drugs. She notes that people posting to websites comment on feeling emotionally flat or numb when they’re taking them, and says that they “yearn for their sorrow back.”
I am so sick and tired of hearing this over and over. For one thing, in the same way that companies generally only hear from dissatisfied customers and not the satisfied ones, you’re going to hear more from people who are unhappy with their antidepressant response than from people who are happy with it. Happy people are not still looking for a solution. They’ve moved on. People who are dissatisfied with their medication are either venting out of frustration or hoping someone has an answer. Continue reading
I Wanted To Live: New Depression Drugs Offer Hope For Toughest Cases : Shots – Health Blog : NPR
A club drug called "Special K" is generating a lot of buzz among researchers who study depression.Thats because "Special K," which is actually an FDA-approved anesthetic named ketamine, can relieve even suicidal depression in a matter of hours. And it works on many patients who havent responded to current antidepressants like Prozac.Those traditional drugs, which act on the brains serotonin system, can take more than a month to kick in, and dont work for up to 40 percent of people with major depression."We can take care of a migraine in hours," says Carlos Zarate, a brain researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health who is studying ketamine. "So why do we have to wait weeks or months with depression?"
via I Wanted To Live: New Depression Drugs Offer Hope For Toughest Cases : Shots – Health Blog : NPR.
Your Mileage May Vary (with Medication)
The dentist was drilling one of my teeth down to get it ready for a crown the other day. Two and a half hours – not all the time spent drilling, of course, but long enough. By the end, I was ready to fight my way out of the chair, if necessary. I’m a big baby when it comes to having my teeth drilled. I hate the noise of the drill. I flinch each time the dentist turns it on.
Of course, the dentist gave me a big old shot of Novocaine or something along those lines. I think it took a full minute for the injection, and after about ten minutes I couldn’t feel most of that side of my face. That’s the way I like it, though. Like I said, I’m a big baby when it comes to this. But the whole procedure, which included some time that the dentist had to go check on other patients, was, as I said, two and a half hours. After less than two hours I could feel that the Novocaine was starting to wear off substantially. Continue reading