Items Tagged With Antidepressants

"Clinicians who prescribe these medications should be aware of the potential risk and may need to consider alternatives," senior researcher Dr. Sonal Singh, assistant professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in Winston-Salem, N.C., said in a prepared statement.

His team published the findings in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

A new class of antidepressants dramatically cut the time needed to take effect when they were tested on rats, a study found.

The study authors, from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said they hope the finding will spur research into the family of drugs, raising the prospect of faster-acting antidepressants.

But, as always with studies involving animals, the findings must first be confirmed in humans.

"The only way we'll know is when a clinical trial is done" involving humans, said Gerald Frye, Joseph H. Shelton professor of neuropharmacology and neurotoxicology at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine's department of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics. "It looks promising from an animal standpoint, and the animal systems they're using are pretty good, but this can only predict. There's no guarantee."

Family therapy may be more effective than simply increasing the dosage of an antidepressant drug when a patient with severe depression suffers a relapse during long-term treatment, new research suggests.

The results from the present study illustrate the important role life events and family balance have on patients being treated for repeat depression episodes, note Dr. Giovanni A. Fava, University of Bologna, Italy, and colleagues.

"If one is taking antidepressants but has a lot of stress around, particularly in their family, they need family treatment and not more drugs," Fava told Reuters Health.

Following the US Food and Drug Administration's warning about the possible risk of suicide among teens when they're treated with antidepressant drugs known as SSRIs, the rates of diagnosis and treatment of depression among adults have declined significantly, according to a new report.

"While some degree of decline in antidepressant prescribing was not unexpected after the black box warning was issued, few if any had predicted diagnosing to decline, or that other modes of treatment (psychotherapy or other medications) would remain relatively unchanged," Dr. Robert J. Valuck told Reuters Health. "It was thought that the latter two may increase to compensate for fewer antidepressant prescriptions being written."

Valuck, from the University of Colorado at Denver, and colleagues examined data relating to depression among 400,000 adult patients enrolled in managed care plans.

Finding the effective antidepressant for the depressive is at this point far from an exact science, although the outlook is improving as we discover more about depression. Doctors for the most part take their best guess based on their experience and the prevailing wisdom. They consider the type of depression the patient suffers from, other medications he or she is taking, the patient's age, how well he or she will deal with the side effects, and other factors. Some patients have to try three, four or more medications before one "clicks" with their chemistry. Some, like me, are successful with the first medication they try. Remember that the chances are very good that your doctor will be able to find an effective medicine for you. As hard as it is, be patient and hopeful and keep trying different medications.

I hear again and again of doctors who start a patient out at a low dosage, and keep the patient at that dosage even when the medication is not working. Before switching you to another medication, your doctor should check the level of medication in your blood and try raising the dosage if it's not sufficient. I had to have the level of both the antidepressants I was on raised not once, but several times. Buy a medication "bible" like The Pill Book, and find out what the normal range of dosage is for your medication.

Your best bet, as with other aspects of this illness, is to educate yourself about the medications available. You are then, in essence, your own "second opinion." I have known of doctors who forget to tell patients of possible side effects of medication, or what other medication or foods should be avoided while taking their antidepressants. Make sure you know what questions to ask the doctor to attain the maximum effect from your medication.