What is an Antidepressant.

An antidepressant is an anti depression medication used in psychiatry to treat mood disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders. People who are affected by these disorders experience a therapeutic effect with antidepressants while healthy people do not. Depression medications are available by prescription only and are among the most commonly prescribed drugs by psychiatrists and other physicians.

What Antidepressants Do|How Antidepressants Work.

Most of the antidepressants are believed to work by slowing the removal of neurotransmitters from the brain. Neurotransmitters are naturally occurring chemicals in the brain, such as dopamine, serotonin or norepinephrine, and  which are responsible for the mood sentiment and other functions such as sleeping, eating, thinking and feeling pain. These are the chemicals which the brain cells or the nerve cells use to communicate.

In depression, changes in the levels of these chemicals are seen and are believed to have a direct bearing on the depression. Antidepressants are beneficial in depression because what antidepressants do is that they restore the balance of these natural brain chemicals and make them more available to the brain thereby helping to relieve the symptoms of depression.

About Antidepressant Treatment.

• It is important to know that just taking the right depression medication is not enough, but taking the right dose is also necessary to get good results.
• Often, it becomes necessary to change the depression drug or its dose during treatment.
• An  antidepressant useful for one may not necessarily suit another.
• At times a combination of depression medicines may be necessary for better results. Another drug usually also an antidepressant with another mode of action is added to augment the action of the depression medication in case of resistance.
• Depression medicines do have their dangers and one should come to know about them by reading the boxed warnings or from your psychiatrist.
• Once started, the full dose of the depression medicine prescribed by your psychiatrist should be adhered to and for the full prescribed length of time.
• Usually the most effective and first line of depression treatment prescribed and which works well, is a combination of depression medication and psychotherapy(also called psychological counseling).
• It may take 3 to 8 weeks after the start of the first depression medication to see any improvement.
• At times hospitalization of the depressed patient may be required for severe and unresponsive depression or the patient could be treated in an outpatient treatment program.
• Do not, repeat, do not change or add any depression medicine or its dosage on your own. Follow your psychiatrist’s advice religiously.
• See your doctor every one or two weeks after starting antidepressant medication.

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