Some have strong opinions about antidepressants, whether they should be taken, and are worried about side effects, psychological confidence, or habit. Yet, many people know antidepressants can help them through different aspects of depression and help them better handle it.
Deciding to use an antidepressant as a treatment choice is a personal decision containing a collaborative effort with your doctor. Doing your research, learning more about antidepressants, and talking with the doctor can help you make the correct choice.
How do antidepressants work?
Different antidepressant medications are available for instruction use. Unfortunately, there is no antidepressant; the best depends on your symptoms and individual needs. Usually, antidepressants help the balance levels of neurotransmitters, which are chemicals necessary for communications between neurons in the brain. These chemicals contain serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine; higher levels of these chemicals usually compare with lower levels of depression.
While antidepressants can be beneficial in depression, their effectiveness is different from patient to patient. For example, how long do the drugs stay in your body? For about 36 hours, while some last for a few days.
How are antidepressant medications selected?
The type of drug prescribed will depend on your symptoms, the presence of another disease, other medicines you are recently taking, the cost of the prescribed treatment, and possible side effects. If you have had depression before, your provider may prescribe the same medicine that worked already. If you have a family depression, a medication that has effectively treated your family member may also work.
Start taking medicine at a low dose. Then, the amount will be slowly increased until it has reached the therapeutic quantity.
What are the side effects of antidepressants?
The provider defines your medicine and will discuss its likely side effects. Then, he will try to prescribe a drug with the minimum side effects for your health conditions. Sometimes, more than one medicine may be tested before achieving the desired benefits.
Monitored will be so that your provider can find the development of harmful side effects and make the necessary changes.
Dose and duration of treatment
Antidepressants are taken in tablets. When they are prescribed, you will start on the lowest dose to improve your synonyms.
Antidepressants need to be taken for 1 or 2 weeks before the benefit starts to be felt. But it’s not to stop taking them if you get mild side effects early on, as these effects usually disappear quickly.
If you take an antidepressant for four weeks without feeling any benefit, speak to a mental health specialist. They may recommend increasing your dose or deciding on a different medicine.
A course of treatment usually lasts for a minimum of 6 months after you start to feel better.
Some people with repeated depression may be advised to take them indefinitely.
