How Different Antidepressants Work
How Different Antidepressants Work
If you have treatment-resistant depression, you might have already picked up some of the antidepressant drug lingo -- you know your SSRIs, your SNRIs and your MAOIs. But do you really know how these drugs help?
If you don't, you're not alone. The truth is that even experts aren't completely sure how antidepressants work. There's just a lot we don't know about how the brain functions.
Coping With Side Effects of Antidepressants
Like any medication, antidepressants can cause side effects. The specific problems vary from drug to drug -- and from person to person.In fact, side effects are one of the main reasons that people with depression stop taking their medicine during their recovery. One study found that 65% of the 1,000 people surveyed said they had stopped taking their medicine, and half of those people cited side effects as the reason.Yet it's important to keep in mind that antidepressants can help you recover...
Read the Coping With Side Effects of Antidepressants article > >
The most important thing you need to know when you’re living with treatment-resistant depression is that antidepressants often can help. To help you understand all your medication options, here are the facts about different types of antidepressants -- along with some tips on how to use them most effectively.
If you've read up on antidepressants -- in newspapers and magazines, or on the Web -- you might see depression explained simply as a "chemical imbalance" or a "serotonin deficiency." Unfortunately, it's not that simple. We really don't know what causes depression or how it affects the brain. We don't exactly know how antidepressants improve the symptoms.
That said, many researchers believe that the benefits of antidepressants stem from how they affect certain brain circuits and the chemicals (called neurotransmitters) that pass along signals from one nerve cell to another in the brain. These chemicals include serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. In various ways, different antidepressants seem to affect how these neurotransmitters behave. Here's a rundown of the main types of antidepressants.
Some of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants are called reuptake inhibitors. What's reuptake? It's the process in which neurotransmitters are naturally reabsorbed back into nerve cells in the brain after they are released to send messages between nerve cells. A reuptake inhibitor prevents this from happening. Instead of getting reabsorbed, the neurotransmitter stays -- at least temporarily -- in the gap between the nerves, called the synapse.
What's the benefit? The basic theory goes like this: keeping levels of the neurotransmitters higher could improve communication between the nerve cells -- and that can strengthen circuits in the brain which regulate mood.
Different kinds of reuptake inhibitors target different neurotransmitters. There are three types:
If you don't, you're not alone. The truth is that even experts aren't completely sure how antidepressants work. There's just a lot we don't know about how the brain functions.
Recommended Related to Depression
Coping With Side Effects of Antidepressants
Like any medication, antidepressants can cause side effects. The specific problems vary from drug to drug -- and from person to person.In fact, side effects are one of the main reasons that people with depression stop taking their medicine during their recovery. One study found that 65% of the 1,000 people surveyed said they had stopped taking their medicine, and half of those people cited side effects as the reason.Yet it's important to keep in mind that antidepressants can help you recover...
Read the Coping With Side Effects of Antidepressants article > >
The most important thing you need to know when you’re living with treatment-resistant depression is that antidepressants often can help. To help you understand all your medication options, here are the facts about different types of antidepressants -- along with some tips on how to use them most effectively.
Understanding Antidepressants: Basic Brain Chemistry
If you've read up on antidepressants -- in newspapers and magazines, or on the Web -- you might see depression explained simply as a "chemical imbalance" or a "serotonin deficiency." Unfortunately, it's not that simple. We really don't know what causes depression or how it affects the brain. We don't exactly know how antidepressants improve the symptoms.
That said, many researchers believe that the benefits of antidepressants stem from how they affect certain brain circuits and the chemicals (called neurotransmitters) that pass along signals from one nerve cell to another in the brain. These chemicals include serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. In various ways, different antidepressants seem to affect how these neurotransmitters behave. Here's a rundown of the main types of antidepressants.
Reuptake Inhibitors: SSRIs, SNRIs, and NDRIs
Some of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants are called reuptake inhibitors. What's reuptake? It's the process in which neurotransmitters are naturally reabsorbed back into nerve cells in the brain after they are released to send messages between nerve cells. A reuptake inhibitor prevents this from happening. Instead of getting reabsorbed, the neurotransmitter stays -- at least temporarily -- in the gap between the nerves, called the synapse.
What's the benefit? The basic theory goes like this: keeping levels of the neurotransmitters higher could improve communication between the nerve cells -- and that can strengthen circuits in the brain which regulate mood.
Different kinds of reuptake inhibitors target different neurotransmitters. There are three types:
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are some of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants available. They include Celexa, Lexapro, Luvox, Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft. Another drug, Symbyax, is approved by the FDA specifically for treatment-resistant depression. It’s a combination of the SSRI antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) and another drug approved for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia called olanzapine (Zyprexa). Abilify, Seroquel, and brexpiprazole have been FDA approved as add-on therapy to antidepressants for treatment-resistant depression. Plus, doctors often use other drugs in combination for treatment-resistant depression. Also, the drugs Viibryd and Brintellix are among the newest antidepressants that affect serotonin. Both drugs affect the serotonin transporter (like an SSRI) but also affect other serotonin receptors to relieve major depression.
- Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are among the newer types of antidepressant. As the name implies, they block the reuptake of both serotonin and norepinephrine. They include Cymbalta, Effexor, Khedezla, Fetzima, and Pristiq.
- Norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs) are another class of reuptake inhibitors, but they're represented by only one drug: Wellbutrin. It affects the reuptake of norepinephrine and dopamine.
