Depression Support Group
Depression is a real and debilitating condition that is often misunderstood by family and friends. Its meaning can range from a prolonged period of sadness to an actual mental illness with specific symptoms. Find and share experiences with others who are going through the same struggles.
I came across this board while surfing the Daily Strength list of sites. It seems as if there are a few misconceptions about meds used to treat depression.
I have a five year degree in Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry, so I know about meds. I want to try to give everyone the true facts about treatment of depression with pharmaceuticals. BTW, I am a respected poster on a few boards, so I am not a nut case. ha ha
I have read some of the comments here and some of you definitely need to be on some meds to help you cope with your depression and anxiety. Counseling and talking to a psychologist is fine, but there is a point at which just talking does not help.
Most depressive states are caused by a chemical imbalance of the brain, so meds are needed to restore the normal balance. There are three main chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters and they are responsible for the transmission of nerve impulses to the brain tissue. Think of them as chemical messengers that carry the impulses back and forth along the nerve synapses.
These three neurotransmitters in the brain area that control our mood are seritonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Seritonin is by far the one that gets out of balance in most cases and is the most important, but the other two can play a role in depression.
In clinical depression, there is not enough free seritonin available to carry the nerve impluses in the brain area. The brain tissue releases seritonin to transmit nerve signals and when it is done the free seritonin is soaked back into the tissue. But in depression the shortage of free seritonin does not allow the nerve impulses ("the messages") to go from nerve cell to nerve cell properly. As a result this shortage of seritonin causes mood changes resulting in depression.
The goal in therapy with antidepressants is to increase that amount of free seritonin in the brain area so that the nerves messages can be transmitted properly. The modern antidepressants, the SSRIs, do exactly that and ease the depression.
SSRIs are Selective Seritonin Reuptake Inhibitors and here is how they work. The brain tissue itself releases the seritonin to help with nerve transmissions and when the job is done the seritonin is soaked back into the brain tissue; the seritonin is no longer "free" seritonin in that it is trapped in the tissue.
The SSRIs inhibit this reuptake by blocking the seritonin when it tries to go back into the brain tissue after it has completed it job. Thus the seritonin can not get back into the tissue and it stays out there as free seritonin. This allows more seritonin available to conduct nerve impulses.
The SSRIs are selective in that they only block the reuptake of seritonin and do not affect dopamine or norephinephrine.
Years ago the only antidepressants used were called the tricyclic antidepressants. This included amitriptyline (Elavil). They were not very effective and had some bothersome side effects such as dry mouth and sedation.
Now we have the SSRIs as antidepressants and they work much better. Prozac was the first one introduced and now we have Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro and others to choose from. These are very effective and usually by trial and error with both the product and the dosage, most all depressed people can be helped.
There are a couple of common mistakes that people sometimes make when taking these SSRIs. First, they give up on them and don't take them long enough. Antidepressants are not quick acting. If you take one today, you will not all of a sudden feel better tomorrow. The full antidepressant effect is not seen in the SSRIs until anywhere from two to four weeks. So don't give up on them.
Another problem is that the SSRIs can be troublesome if a person want to get themselves off the drug. Any withdrawal must be done very gradually and the dose must be slowly reduced over at least a month's time.
If a person tries to get off the drug too quickly, the results will not be life threatening, but they will be bothersome (dizziness, nausea, flu like symptoms), so it is imperative to slowly withdraw if a person want to stop taking them. A quick withdrawal causes the brain to "rebel" as it is used to having enough seritonin to work properly. In a withdrawal, the brain has to adapt to the smaller amount of free seritonin, which cause these untoward side effects.
I have read some of the comments here and it is obvious that some posters here need to be on some antidepressant meds. When a person can no longer function in life, wants to stay in bed all the time, cannot sleep and has early morning awakening, cries, or contemplates suicide, it is time to find some help in the form of meds.
If some here are on meds and they are not helping, the med needs to be changed or the dosage adjusted. There are very few true depression cases where there is not a med out there to at least help and enable a person to live a decent life.
I am a humanitarian. It bothers me to see people suffering when there are drugs out there that could help.
I also see so much misinformation regarding SSRIs and other meds that it bothers me. This info I have given you here is straight from the horses's mouth so to speak.
Hope this helps everyone to understand depression better.
rewdiazepam
I have a five year degree in Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry, so I know about meds. I want to try to give everyone the true facts about treatment of depression with pharmaceuticals. BTW, I am a respected poster on a few boards, so I am not a nut case. ha ha
I have read some of the comments here and some of you definitely need to be on some meds to help you cope with your depression and anxiety. Counseling and talking to a psychologist is fine, but there is a point at which just talking does not help.
Most depressive states are caused by a chemical imbalance of the brain, so meds are needed to restore the normal balance. There are three main chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters and they are responsible for the transmission of nerve impulses to the brain tissue. Think of them as chemical messengers that carry the impulses back and forth along the nerve synapses.
These three neurotransmitters in the brain area that control our mood are seritonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Seritonin is by far the one that gets out of balance in most cases and is the most important, but the other two can play a role in depression.
In clinical depression, there is not enough free seritonin available to carry the nerve impluses in the brain area. The brain tissue releases seritonin to transmit nerve signals and when it is done the free seritonin is soaked back into the tissue. But in depression the shortage of free seritonin does not allow the nerve impulses ("the messages") to go from nerve cell to nerve cell properly. As a result this shortage of seritonin causes mood changes resulting in depression.
The goal in therapy with antidepressants is to increase that amount of free seritonin in the brain area so that the nerves messages can be transmitted properly. The modern antidepressants, the SSRIs, do exactly that and ease the depression.
SSRIs are Selective Seritonin Reuptake Inhibitors and here is how they work. The brain tissue itself releases the seritonin to help with nerve transmissions and when the job is done the seritonin is soaked back into the brain tissue; the seritonin is no longer "free" seritonin in that it is trapped in the tissue.
The SSRIs inhibit this reuptake by blocking the seritonin when it tries to go back into the brain tissue after it has completed it job. Thus the seritonin can not get back into the tissue and it stays out there as free seritonin. This allows more seritonin available to conduct nerve impulses.
The SSRIs are selective in that they only block the reuptake of seritonin and do not affect dopamine or norephinephrine.
Years ago the only antidepressants used were called the tricyclic antidepressants. This included amitriptyline (Elavil). They were not very effective and had some bothersome side effects such as dry mouth and sedation.
Now we have the SSRIs as antidepressants and they work much better. Prozac was the first one introduced and now we have Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro and others to choose from. These are very effective and usually by trial and error with both the product and the dosage, most all depressed people can be helped.
There are a couple of common mistakes that people sometimes make when taking these SSRIs. First, they give up on them and don't take them long enough. Antidepressants are not quick acting. If you take one today, you will not all of a sudden feel better tomorrow. The full antidepressant effect is not seen in the SSRIs until anywhere from two to four weeks. So don't give up on them.
Another problem is that the SSRIs can be troublesome if a person want to get themselves off the drug. Any withdrawal must be done very gradually and the dose must be slowly reduced over at least a month's time.
If a person tries to get off the drug too quickly, the results will not be life threatening, but they will be bothersome (dizziness, nausea, flu like symptoms), so it is imperative to slowly withdraw if a person want to stop taking them. A quick withdrawal causes the brain to "rebel" as it is used to having enough seritonin to work properly. In a withdrawal, the brain has to adapt to the smaller amount of free seritonin, which cause these untoward side effects.
I have read some of the comments here and it is obvious that some posters here need to be on some antidepressant meds. When a person can no longer function in life, wants to stay in bed all the time, cannot sleep and has early morning awakening, cries, or contemplates suicide, it is time to find some help in the form of meds.
If some here are on meds and they are not helping, the med needs to be changed or the dosage adjusted. There are very few true depression cases where there is not a med out there to at least help and enable a person to live a decent life.
I am a humanitarian. It bothers me to see people suffering when there are drugs out there that could help.
I also see so much misinformation regarding SSRIs and other meds that it bothers me. This info I have given you here is straight from the horses's mouth so to speak.
Hope this helps everyone to understand depression better.
rewdiazepam
"Just because the FDA approves these drugs does not mean that they are SAFE, it just means that they have passed FDA guidelines...and all these pharmaceutical companies make damn sure in their ads that consumers are well aware of the side-effects, which take up half the time in a :30 commercial and read like a grocery list! "
I was doing a research paper around a year ago and what I found out was phenomenal. To put it very bluntly, Big Pharma, The FDA and other organizations are "in bed" together to make money. I looked into studies in Countries where medicine is socialized and you would be amazed at the difference in results they got.
One great example was the so called difference between the typical and atypical antipsychotics in terms of sides effects and harm. The typicals being older and very cheap, the atypical costing a fortune.
Naturally here in USA, the atypicals were found to be much safer.
But in the foreign studies, no discernible difference could be found.
I wonder if our friend would come back and answer our new questions. I guess he left. Ah Well.
Thanks all for great information and fodder.
All this is a moot point. With "Obamacare" as a first step toward socialized medicine, which I think is a good idea, because healthcare as we know it is way too expensive, not to mention frequently harmful and ineffective, we're going to see a lot more nutrition, exercise and other preventative maintenance becoming increasingly popular as healthcare methods, simply because it's cheaper, and often works better.
I hope you are right about Obama Care. But, defeating Big Pharma, will be a bitch! You know the money has to come from somewhere and none of the rich bas***** want to pay.