Rules for the use of antidepressants
For successful treatment of depression and minimizing side effects, it is important to use medications correctly, follow doctor’s recommendations, and combine pharmacotherapy with non-drug treatment.
- Drugs are selected and used ONLY under the supervision of a physician;
- It is necessary to take into account the severity of depression, contraindications, drug interactions;
- In a healthy person, antidepressants do not improve mood and cannot be used as drugs;
- The most effective are mirtazapine, sertraline, venlafaxine, escitalopram (2009 study);
- The full effect of the medication for depression begins after one and a half to two months of use;
- Therapy for depression consists of acute relief, maintenance and preventive stages;
- Changing the drug is possible only after one to two weeks if it is ineffective.
Antidepressants reviews
Many people have been helped by the tips described in this article. Moreover, following simple rules, people improved not only their emotional and psychological mood, but also radically changed their lives for the better. If you have a fairly prolonged depression, from which, no matter how hard you try, you cannot get out of it on your own, do not delay and do not refer to being busy, consult a doctor. After all, not everyone can cope with their condition. There is only one life and how you live it depends only on you. Love, appreciate and take care of yourself. And everything will be fine with you!
ADEPRESS: reviews
I'll give you another pill It'll lift your mood It's much better, much more expensive You'll like it, my friend Now I sit on the couch all day with a smile I watch TV without being turned on It's just that I'm a little worried The saliva flows on its own One day I heard S.'s song on TV. Slepakov’s “Tablet” which made me laugh until I had liver colic... Who could have known that after a while it wouldn’t be very funny for me... But first things first... The question “How to deal with depression?” probably torments many today. It is especially unpleasant if depression is not just seasonal, but has very specific causes and is not treated in any way. For some reason, in our country it is not customary to pay much attention to your mental well-being, acting on the principle “Lie down and get some sleep and everything will pass.” …
New antidepressants popular in Europe and Russia
New antidepressants of the new generation SSRI group are prescribed for depressive conditions. The effectiveness of their use depends on the strength and proportionality in the selective inhibition of norepinephrine and serotonin receptors. The ability to block the release of both substances eliminates the need to use several drugs in pathologies with impaired metabolism of both mediators. The most popular antidepressants in Russia are fluoxetine, venlafaxine, milnacipral, and deloxetine.
Attention! The drugs are sold in pharmacies only with a doctor's prescription.
Venlafaxine
A fairly strong medicine with narcotic side effects that occurs due to a pronounced blockade of norepinephrine release at nerve synapses. Prescribed for schizophrenia and other mental disorders accompanied by depressive states.
Fluoxetine (“Portal”)
For milder depressive disorders, it is better to replace venlafaxine with fluoxetine. Its effect is associated with a decrease in serotonin uptake, which creates a “softer” effect. The drug is used all over the world for depressive disorders and bulimia nervosa, but other new generation antidepressants are preferable to it.
The medicine has become widely used due to the lack of impact on the metabolism of other mediators, except norepinephrine and serotonin. The stimulating and weak sedative activity of fluoxetine has made it possible to use it in outpatient clinical practice.
Regardless of the time of administration, the medicine is well absorbed. Its half-life is 1-3 days. The duration of action of up to 15 days, which is described in the annotation for the product, is determined by its active metabolite – norfluxetine. Fluoxetine is marketed under the name "Portal". 20 mg of fluoxetine is contained in a “portal” capsule. The standard dose of an antidepressant for fears and phobias is 1 capsule per day.
Clinical studies have shown that the “portal” is particularly effective in treating depression of various origins. Modern antidepressants such as “Portal” are used to treat patients with compulsive-obsessive disorders in old age.
“Portal” is tolerated quite well by patients. Side effects are either mild or absent. In any case, if negative effects are detected when using the drug, it should not be discontinued, but only corrective therapy for the disorders should be carried out. Contraindication to use is hypersensitivity to MAOIs and fluoxetine.
Sertraline
A new generation antidepressant with the most pronounced effect. It is the “gold standard” in the treatment of anxiety and depression. Maximum effectiveness is observed with bulimia nervosa (lack of appetite). Dose – 50-200 mg per day.
Paxil
It has anxiolytic and thymoanaleptic effects. It is used for inhibited and melancholy depression, relieves suicidal thoughts and treats personality disorders. Anxiety states quickly disappear with a daily dose of 10-40 mg. In some cases, doctors increase the dosage to 80 mg.
Insidon (opipramol)
An antidepressant with antiemetic, hypothermic and anticonvulsant effects. It exhibits antiserotonin, analgesic and antihistamine activity. Insidon is used to stabilize the active background. In the first days of using the drug, a pronounced tranquilizing effect is observed.
Additionally, opipramol is used to stabilize the autonomic system for dyskinesias of the genitourinary organs, intestines, heart pain, and vegetative-vascular dystonia (VSD). Due to the above effects, antidepressants of the opipramol group are considered “psychosomatic hormonizers.”
They are used on an outpatient basis and in hospitals for myocardial infarction, treatment of diseases of internal organs, bronchial asthma, angina pectoris, and high blood pressure. Therapeutic dose – 100-200 mg per day.
How do antidepressants affect the body?
Medical experts in various sources talk about the basic principles of action of drugs classified as antidepressants. Conducting various consultations, they say that the main effect of the components is their effect on the neurotransmitter systems of the human brain.
What are neurotransmitters? This is a kind of system in the body that is responsible for the transfer of information and various signals between cells. Among the well-known substances in this group, mental health experts highlight dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. As research by scientists once showed, it is the lack of these components that leads to depression and disorders, as well as melancholy. By their effect, antidepressants support the production of these substances at normal levels, due to which a person’s mood stabilizes.
Doctors' reviews of antidepressants say that at present medicine has not come up with a single drug with antidepressant properties that would immediately give the expected effect. In other words, nothing will happen suddenly after taking one pill. That is why all antidepressants are designed to be taken within a certain course, the duration of which must be determined by the doctor.
Sedative Lek Deprim - reviews
I was going through a difficult period in my life. Everything collapsed at once, sad events in my personal life, problems at work, health problems intensified due to nervousness. I was in despair, at first it seemed that I was just very tired, and I needed to change everything, change the situation and survive. But several months passed, during the day I could still be distracted by work, and when I went to bed, I cried all the time, remembering what happened. I didn’t want anything, none of my previous hobbies were interesting, it seemed like life was over. It was as if I couldn’t breathe, I just physically felt the pain suffocating me from the inside, a sort of lump in my chest. She reacted inappropriately to other people, in her free time she lay around at home, because she always wanted to sleep and do nothing. I had difficulty going to work and made basic mistakes.
I realized that this condition would not bring any benefit, it was getting worse. I saw Deprim in the pharmacy a long time ago, it was written that it improves mood. I bought it and decided to drink it. Before this, I couldn’t sleep well at night and cried. After I started taking it, I literally began to pass out, like clockwork. Usually I didn’t go to bed until half past 12 or 12 o’clock. And then I switched off at 10
.
It felt like I had run out of strength to worry, and I was being taken away by sleep, so pleasant that I couldn’t resist it. From that moment (after about a week of taking it) it became a little better. Spent a lot of time sleeping. Although it was spring, there came the kind of calm
that comes in winter, when snow falls, all sounds disappear, everything around freezes. I drank 2 packs, according to the instructions, it is recommended to take it for 2-3 weeks.
The drug helped me, it became easier at the same time, but at the same time I felt that this was an artificial condition. But then it was necessary. It was a little scary that the thoughts that used to make me cry no longer brought tears to my eyes.
. Pleasant activity appeared and there was more vitality. I even started to care a little about some things. In general, it was felt that the drug seemed to smooth out negative emotions and prevent the mood from dropping. And enhances good emotions. + physical activity appears, a positive attitude appears, you want to do everything. Anxiety and other worries go away. I gained a little weight even after it, because my appetite improved. Helps improve mood, and most importantly, physical well-being and activity, because all this is interconnected. It turned out to be a good choice for me.
Minuses
— there was a slight allergy, red spots on the skin. And there are 30 tablets in one pack, which is not enough. The effect of treatment occurs in at least 10-14 days. I will also add that not only the drug can cope with depression. He's just helping. Changes in lifestyle, changing jobs, expanding my social circle, and finding new hobbies and interests also helped me. But without such support I would hardly be able to change anything.
Tricyclic antidepressants
Medicines in this group are divided into selective and non-selective, depending on their mechanism of action and the method of capture of neurotransmitters.
The drugs in these groups include a huge number of items:
- "Imipramine"
- "Protlitilin"
- "Fluoroacyzine", "
- Amitriptyline",
- "Elavil"
- "Anafranil."
The list of popular ones also includes “Tofranil”, which is in great demand in pharmacies. All of these medications can be purchased without a doctor's prescription, but this does not mean that all of them are completely safe for the human body. Reviews of taking antidepressants of this type often say that patients begin to experience special symptoms in the form of nausea, diarrhea, headaches, etc. That is why drugs of the tricyclic group must be prescribed by a doctor and only after an examination has been carried out and received results of tests taken. For example, reviews of the antidepressant “Amitriptyline” often say that if an adult and seemingly completely healthy person starts taking the drug on their own, problems with the heart and breathing begin.
So, let's take a closer look at the selective and non-selective subgroups of tricyclic antidepressants. They all have a neurotransmitter reuptake effect, but what differences exist between them?
