Anti-depressants : Should We Use Them Or Not ?

Introduction

As we know the depression is the mood disorder that kills you both mentally and physically. Anti-depressants are the medicines that are used to cure depression. But many people have many doubts regarding anti-depressants. So here we’ll be discussing about all FAQ’s and doubts related to anti-depressants drugs.

Are anti-depressants effective ?

Some people ask this question that are these medicines work or not ? Are anti-depressants effective or not ? The simple answer I would like to give is Yes. Anti-depressants are very effective drugs. Recently a study had been done in the britain in which all surveys of the medical science collected by the various countries were included and it was concluded that anti-depressants medicines are effective. In the study it had also been found that 50% patients respond to the first anti-depressants drug which is given to the patient. And rest of them respond to 2nd or 3rd anti-depressants drug. So anti-depressants are effective drugs.

Isn’t taking anti-depressants medicines same as running away from life problem ?

I would like to answer this query in detail. Actually when we face problems in our life and face difficult circumstances then the depression develops in a person. When we treat a patient we don’t treat the bad circumstances and situations but we treat the disease or discomfort arose from that conditions.
I would like to take an analogy here, consider it is raining outside and you are coming from somewhere and you get wet in the rain. Due to getting wet in rain you get cold and you take medicine. Now you tell me you are taking this medicine for what purpose ? Are you taking it because you have got wet in rain or you are taking it for the disease or discomfort you got due to getting wet in rain.

Similarly if a person is facing problems in life. For example a young female is not feeling well with her mother in law. There is always fight and abusing runs among them. What will happen at last ? Lastly depression develops. Similarly a young male goes to office and he doesn’t feel comfortable with his boss and the male undergoes depression.
Now when this young male or female come to us for treatment, we give them treatment of the disease or disorder developed from those bad conditions in which they had lived.

Now when these patients will recover from depression then they can easily handle the future conditions automatically. As result young male will be able to get rid of office problem and this young female will be able to improve her relationship. So in a nutshell always remember treatment is not for problems of life but for the disease derived from those situations ( depression ).

Do anti-depressants have side effects ?

The most common query that comes to me is ‘ Do anti-depressants have side effects ?’ Most of people say that anti-depressants have very dangerous side effects. Some of them say anti-depressants once started they will have to take it throughout the life. I want to give clear cut answer related to side effects – Yes similar to other drugs anti-depressant drugs may also have side effects. But side effects includes :

Dyspepsia ( Feeling of burning in stomach )
Nausea & Vomiting
Hypersomnia ( More sleep )

Myth-1 Side effects of problem in visceral organs

These are side trivial effect that you may have during taking anti-depressants drugs. But all of these are very mild and go away if we adjust the dose. Most of the stomach problems automatically get well if we take medicines after the meal.
Whatever we think that if we take anti-depressants medicines, it will create problem in kidneys, liver, brain, stomach etc. All these are silly things and nonsense. Because these medicines don’t show their effects on kidneys, liver, stomach etc. So this is the completely a myth that is spread by the people. There is no any serious side effects has been seen so far. If any of them occurs it easily get well.

Myth-2 Side effects of weight gain

In addition to this some people ask me that if they start taking anti-depressants, will they gain weight and will they undergo obesity ? The answer is yes. The weight may increase and it is because sudden increased hunger. Actually what happens in the depression a person lost his appetite and interest in everything. So he doesn’t eat anything. And when the patient start taking anti-depressants his the patient feel hungry and over eats. As a result the weight increases because of over eating and exercising. Remember there is no fat in the anti-depressants. One more thing if any anti-depressants is causing weight gain then we can switch to other anti-depressants.

Myth-3 Side effects of sexual life

As I already said above, in the depression the patient loses his interest in everything like eating, hobbies, attending any occasion, getting happy etc. He loses his interest in sex too. Sex is the physical activity and patient doesn’t respond to the sexual life also in case if depression. Depression itself a killer of every interest of a person. When a person takes anti-depressants many thing can happen. If the depression symptoms improve the sexual life comes back to normal stage. In some people sexual side effects is seen like problem in erection, loss of interest in sex etc. In such patients either we have to lower the dose of the drug or we have to switch to other anti-depressants.

Is treatment with anti-depressants a life long treatment ?

Next question that comes to me is that if a person starts taking medicine for depression, he/she will have to take it throughout the life. Look if any patient gets first episode of depression in his life ( first time depression ), then the duration of the treatment may be from 6-9 months. If depression episode occurs many times to a patient then the duration of treatment increases but not more than 2-5 years. We don’t have to take anti-depressants for more than 2-5 years because this time is enough to treat any kind of depression of any stage.

But one more thing I want to add here that in some cases when a patient completely recovers from depression and stops taking medicines. The symptoms appear again after stopping the medicines or they don’t go well. In such cases we have to give the treatment for longer duration
In my opinion the anti-depressants are badly cursed in our society in such cases.

For example if someone has either BP or sugar or thyroid problem and if a person takes a treatment. Doesn’t all of these diseases treatment go long life ? Treatment of these diseases goes throughout the life because these are lifestyle diseases. Even anti-depressants medicines are stopped after a particular duration. So it is also a myth that anti-depressants treatment goes life-long.

Which is better medication or counselling ?

In response to this question I would prefer both the medications and counselling. You can easily understand if we follow prevention along with medications for any disease how much it helpful for us. Similarly medications work biologically which means it is given for balancing the chemical level in the brain and counselling work for changing the thinking from negativity to positivity. It has been seen in a depression patient that his thinking becomes completely negativity for everything. Counselling is the key that converts negative thinking to positive thinking. Counselling and medications are not against each other but favours each other. Best results come when both counselling and medications gives together.
In practice we the doctor see a good respond from the patient when we give medication to the patient and counselling following it. So in many cases some patients respond to counselling in better way and some respond to medication. But in an average combination of both gives the best results.

Conclusion

In the end I would like to say don’t believe on what you hear from others. Don’t go with the hearing of people what they say to you and what you have read over the google. Because in this way you damage your treatment. If you really want to know about these medicines then ask your doctor or go to better website instead of going to trivial websites. Don’t take your life’s major decisions by trusting others opinions. I hope I must have cleared your doubts for anti-depressants.