Antidepressant Drugs: Using Medication for Depression Treatment
If you’re diagnosed with depression, your doctor may begin your depression treatment by prescribing antidepressant medication, which is the most common form of depression treatment. If depression medication doesn’t work for you–or you experience side effects on medication–your doctor may explore other treatment options for you.
How Does Depression Medication Work?
You’ve probably heard that depression medication corrects a chemical imbalance in your brain. While this is a simplified explanation, researchers do believe that depression medication works by adjusting or “fine tuning” the levels of your brain’s neurochemicals.
Neurochemicals are chemical messengers (called “neurotransmitters”) that help transmit signals throughout your nervous system. Depression medication alters the amounts of one or more of three of these neurotransmitters:
- Dopamine
- Norepinephrine (aka noradrenaline)
- Serotonin.
Neurons communicate with one another via neurotransmitters. One neuron releases a neurotransmitter into the synapse (the gap between two neurons) so that the next neuron can receive the neurotransmitter and the intended message. After a time, the neurotransmitter is taken up again by the sending neuron to be used in a future message. Depression medication works by slowing this “reuptake” process to allow the neurotransmitter more time to activate the receiving neuron.
The First Types of Depression Medication
The first types of depression medication to be developed were monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs). Today, these are prescribed only if modern medication for depression fails to work. Both MAOIs and TCAs have adverse side effects such as:
- Anxiety
- Excessive sweating
- Insomnia
- Low blood pressure
- Sexual dysfunction
- Weight gain.
Modern Depression Medication
A second wave of depression medication has been developed that has fewer and more tolerable side effects. In many cases, these side effects diminish over the course of a few weeks. Some of the most common side effects include:
- Agitation or anxiety
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Reduced sex drive
- Trouble sleeping.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are one family of modern depression medication. SSRIs are called “selective” because they block the reuptake of serotonin but appear to have no effect on any of the other neurotransmitters in the brain. Some SSRIs currently on the market include:
- Citalopram (Celexa®)
- Escitalopram (Lexapro®)
- Fluvoxamin (Luvox®)
- Fluoxetine (Prozac®)
- Paroxetine (Paxil®)
- Sertraline (Zoloft®).
Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are a group of antidepressants known as “dual reuptake inhibitors” because they inhibit the reuptake of both serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain. Some SNRIs include:
- Desyenlafaxine (Pristiq®)
- Duloxetine (Cymbalta®)
- Venlafaxine (Effexor®).
Norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs) are another family of antidepressants that inhibits the reuptake of both norepinephrine and dopamine. Bupropion (Wellbutrin®) is a well-known NDRI.
Which Depression Medication is Right for You?
Many patients have to try more than one type of medication for depression before finding one that works. Most people decrease or discontinue their depression medication in time, although this is not always possible. Depression medication can be part of a wider depression treatment plan that may include other components such as healthy lifestyle choices and psychotherapy.
Resources
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2008). Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Retrieved May 18, 2010, from the Mayo Clinic website: www.mayoclinic.com/health/ssris/MH00066.
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2010). Treatment and drugs. Retrieved May 7, 2010, from the Mayo Clinic website: www.mayoclinic.com/health/depression/DS00175/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs.
Lundbeck Institute. (n.d.) Depression – treatment. Retrieved May 10, 2010, from the Lundbeck Institute website: www.brainexplorer.org/depression/Depression_Treatment.shtml.
National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.) Medication. Retrieved May 10, 2010, from the National Alliance on Mental Illness website: www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Depression&Template=/ContentManagement/ ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=88724.
Nemade, R., Staats Reiss, N., & Dombeck, M. (2007). Major depression and other unipolar depressions. Retrieved May 5, 2010, from the MentalHealth.net website: www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=438&cn=5.