antidepressants

Antidepressants: Should your loved one take them?

February 24, 2016 By Kay Walker

Read this article to understand the struggles that coming with considering taking antidepressant medications. Share it with your loved one. It may help them decide what to do.

Hair loss. Fatigue. Increased thoughts of suicide. Tremors. Weight gain. These are some of the side effects you’ll read on pamphlets that come with antidepressants. It likely won’t make you feel good about taking them.

There are many proponents for antidepressants. And there are some who believe that you can live with herbal supplements. Some depression sufferers succeed in overcoming the disorder without them. Then there are people who need to take antidepressants to live their life.

The truth is: Everyone is different. Every case of depression is different. So, finding what works for you takes a lot of discovery, a lot of trial, and eventually the more you try the more you get close to finding out what works.

And that may mean, going through months of trying medications that don’t work and make you feel worse. It’s sadly part of the process. Until there is a research breakthrough that improves treatment for depression, this is the reality about the tools we have to deal with it.

Antidepressants: Should you take them?

It’s your choice. But consider these facts:

Taking antidepressants is your choice. Though, sometimes you need to make this choice even if you don’t want to. If you are not improving on natural remedies and by taking what is considered “healthy actions” (see articles on health minimums) then you should probably opt to try an antidepressant.

Here are some points to consider:

You may only need them temporarily.If you go on an antidepressant you can always choose to go off. Even later in life, if you feel well, are under a doctor’s care, once you get stable in other areas, you can try to go without them.
Never mess with what the doctor prescribes. Antidepressants target your brain and go off them suddenly, even if you are not finding them helpful, can make you worse.
They might be the only thing that helps you. You’ll know this if you are taking all the healthy actions and your mood isn’t improving.
One in 10 Americans take antidepressants. This means, that a lot of people find them useful and effective. It’s a large number so on the flip side, it’s been suggested by experts in the medical community that we are treated versus curing the issue.
When you have a cold you take cold medicine. Depression is the same. The issues arise in your brain, the difference is you can’t see depression.
Your brain could be missing a chemical it requires to function properly. So you are not putting something synthetic, you are giving your body what it requires.
Antidepressant medications can be expensive. They’ll need to be factored into your budget. Depending on your treatment plan and insurance options you’ll likely spend anywhere from $0 – $350 per month.

Antidepressants explained

February 24, 2016 By Kay Walker

Finding the right antidepressant medication requires a trial and error approach. Currently, there exists no test to accurately measure symptoms. Your loved one’s doctor doesn’t really know what to prescribe them. They select one from a list, prescribe it to and monitor them over 4-12 weeks (this is how long it takes to see benefits and qualify a medication) to see if what they’ve chosen works. If not, they try another medication. This process continues until they find what works.

How doctors prescribe antidepressants:

There are approximately 22 antidepressant medications on the market that have been approved by the American Federal Drug Association (FDA). They fall under four categories, labeled for the brain chemical they target. (each variety is explained below) In order to choose an appropriate medication for your loved one, the doctor may consider these factors:

Their situation. Each case of depression is different, which means so are the symptoms. Their doctor will like assess their situation and choose an antidepressant that is likely not amplify a negative issue you are dealing with. For example, if they are severely overweight or have an eating disorder a doctor will try and prescribe a medication that does not have a side effects of weight gain because that will only make the situation worse.
Their lifestyle. Antidepressants have side effects that can unobstrusive but annoying (ie. dry mouth, low sex drive). A doctor may ask them some lifestyle questions to help him discover what a good medication would be. For example, for a man trying to have a baby with his wife, taking a low sex drive medication may not be helpful.
Their current physiology. The doctor will evaluate their current physiology, this includes taking into account other health conditions they may have. If they are pregnant or breast feeding, there are some antidepressants they should not take.
Their genetics. If they have a family members that takes antidepressants their doctor may prescribe the same treatment. Often genes play a role in how a patient reacts to a medication. If it work for a family member with a similar genetic predisposition then it may be effective for them.
Their financial capabilities. If they do not have medical coverage antidepressants can cost up to $350/month. Some antidepressants are cheaper than others.
Their other medications. Are they taking other supplements and/or medications? This will be considered as some medications work negatively together.

How do anti-depressants work?:

The basic premise of an antidepressant is that once you take it the drug passes through your body via your blood and into your brain. There, it targets a specific brain chemical (or chemicals) that control your mood.

If you read the word “inhibitor reuptake” what that means is that the drugs stops a process where the chemical does not re-enter the brain cell, which it would normally do. That means, less of the chemical remains in the nerve cell.

The brain chemicals that are targeted by these drugs are called: Dopamine, Serotonin, and Norepinephrine

Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

These medications are safer and generally cause fewer bothersome side effects than other types of antidepressants.

Common SSRIs by drug name include: Prozac, Selfemra, Paxil, Pexeva, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro

Serotonin and norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitors (SNRIs)

Common SNRIs by drug name include: Cymbalta, Effexor XR, Pristiq, Khedezl, Fetzima

Norepinephrine and dopamine re-uptake inhibitors (NDRIs)

One of the few antidepressants not frequently associated with sexual side effects.

Common NDRIs by drug name include: Wellbutrin, Aplenzin, Forfivo XL.

Tricyclics

Not many doctors prescribe tricyclics these days, though they are still effective for many people. They are often used after other drugs haven’t work. They’ve been replaced because they tend to have more side effects.

Cyclic antidepressants block the absorption (reuptake) of the neurotransmitters serotonin (ser-o-TOE-nin) and norepinephrine (nor-ep-ih-NEF-rin), making more of these chemicals available in the brain. This seems to help brain cells send and receive messages, which in turn boosts mood.

Norpramin, Tofranil, Pamelor, Vivactil, Trimipramine, Surmontil

MAOIs Using an MAOI requires a strict diet because of dangerous food interactions. Selegiline (Emsam), a newer MAOI that you stick on your skin as a patch, may cause fewer side effects than other MAOIs

Atypical antidepressants

Oleptro, Remeron, Brintellix, Viibryd

How doctors prescribe antidepressants

June 23, 2015 By Kay Walker

Finding the right anti-depressant medication requires a trial and error approach. Currently, there exists no test to accurately measure your symptoms. So your doctor doesn’t really know what to prescribe you. They select one from a list, prescribe it to you and monitor you over 4-12 weeks (this is how long it takes to see benefits and qualify a medication) to see if what they’ve chosen works. If not, they try another medication. This process continues until they find what works.