THE RECENT REVERSAL in life expectancy in America has targeted much attention at the “deaths of depression” of poorly knowledgeable middle-aged white guys. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), typical existence expectancy fell for the second time in three years in 2017, driven via a surge in opioid overdoses and suicide, at which whites are maximum at hazard. But a brand new paper using Lauren Gaydosh, a sociologist on the Center for Medicine Health and Society at Vanderbilt University, indicates that disappointment and its symptoms are good-sized in center age Americans of all races and ethnicities.
Ms. Gaydosh and her colleagues used statistics from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to music the fitness and behavior of a set of Americans first surveyed in the mid-1990s after they were teens. They have been maximum of days interviewed in 2016 after being in their past due to the 30s and 40s. The researchers studied the information on depressive signs and said contemplation of suicide. They also tracked behaviors consisting of heavy drinking and marijuana use. I am not saying that every person who has depression should take medication. For now, what I would like to share with you are my experiences with depression medication that I have used to treat my depression.
Before we get into the effectiveness of depression medication, I think that it would be helpful to outline exactly what medications are used to treat depression.
Medications Used To Treat Depression
The most common medications to treat someone with depression are anti-depressants.
So what are anti-depressants?
They are medications that are designed to reduce or relieve the effects of depression.
Types Of Anti-depressants
There are many types of anti-depressants available. Each type, family, or class has its own method of helping depression.
Within the classes, each drug is slightly different. There are side effects and warnings common to each class of antidepressants, and many of the individual drugs have additional side effects or warnings.
Let’s take a closer look at each family of anti-depressants, starting with the one most people have heard about.
SSRIs:
SSRI stands for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. These medications work by preventing the neurotransmitter serotonin from being reabsorbed by the nerve cell that released it, thereby forcing the serotonin to keep actively working.
SSRI’s include:
Fluoxetine.
Sertraline – this is what I take to manage my depression.
SNRIs and SSNRIs:
These two terms are essentially synonymous.
SNRI stands for serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, while SSNRI stands for selective serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, but there really isn’t any appreciable difference. Both duloxetine and venlafaxine are SNRIs. I was on venlafaxine for 3 years before it seemed to stop working for me.
There are other classes or families of anti-depressants, but the above 2 are what I have used, and I don’t want this article to be too technical!
Unfortunately, when it comes to anti-depressants, one size does not fit all! It is only through trial and error by trying the anti-depressants your doctor or psychiatrist prescribes until you find one that works for you.
Also, it is trial and error with the dosage amount. Each time that I was put on an anti-depressant, my psychiatrist started with a low dosage and increased it as need be over time.
As with all prescribed medications, there are possible side effects. I was lucky with both venlafaxine and sertraline in that the only side effects I had with each anti-depressant were a headache and mild nausea.
These side-effects only lasted a few days, so it was a small price to pay for the huge positive benefit they gave me.
It is important to note that a doctor or psychiatrist should monitor a person’s anti-depressant medication to see if it is still working and if the dosage is correct.
