Starting a New Antidepressant? — Here Are 5 Things You Should Know
But, a new antidepressant doesn’t have to be scary. Here are five things to remember to help you start feeling better faster.
1) Antidepressants can take a while to kick in.
Antidepressants can take four to six weeks to start working in full effect, and until then, your depression symptoms may get better or worse. During this time, be sure to keep track of how you’re feeling, tell your doctor if anything worries you, and appreciate your progress, even if it’s slow. Above all, even if you feel like your antidepressant isn’t helping, don’t stop taking it before talking to your doctor first.
2) Side effects happen, but they can be temporary.
Side effects of antidepressants may include nausea headaches, anxiety, sleepiness, insomnia, sexual dysfunction and weight gain, and they’re a big reason why people stop taking their antidepressants. Roughly 30% of people taking antidepressants stop within the first month, often because of one or more of these side effects.
We don’t know much about how often side effects happen or if they happen more frequently with certain antidepressants, but one study gives us a clue. In about 3,200 patients reporting antidepressant side effects, headache was the most common, followed by nausea. Reports of agitation, sleepiness, and sexual problems were significantly fewer.
The study also found that SNRI antidepressants (serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) like Cymbalta (duloxetine) and Effexor (venlafaxine) caused nausea more often than SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) like Prozac (fluoxetine), Celexa (citalopram) and Zoloft (sertraline). Additionally, Wellbutrin (bupropion), another type of antidepressant, seemed to be less frequently associated with headaches and drowsiness.
If you ask a pharmacist, they’ll most likely say early side effects are just signs of your body getting used to the medication, so you should probably just stick it out for a few weeks. But, there are also a lot of choices when it comes to antidepressants. Talk to your doctor about options that minimize the side effects that bother you the most.
3) Another medication might help.
If you don’t see results and you’ve tried several antidepressants, it’s worth talking to your doctor about other drugs. Other common medications used to treat depression include:
- Atypical antipsychotics
- Anti-anxiety medications
- Stimulants
- Anti-Parkinson medications
- Antiepileptic medications
Again, never stop or change your medications without talking to your doctor first. Although the above medications may be used to treat depression, in some patients, they can actually make depression symptoms worse.
4) Other methods of therapy can help.
Traditional antidepressants, or SSRIs, are the most commonly prescribed treatments for depression. However, sometimes, they just don’t work. Alternative therapies, such as exercise, can help here and even when antidepressants seem to be working.
Writing can also be a powerful tool. It can help you process your feelings, especially as memories during depression are often distorted, so you can better understand yourself and your experience with a medication. If taking your medicine feels like a chore, whether it be because of side effects, the dosing regimen or the cost, it can affect whether you’ll take your medicine and whether it will work for you in the long run.
5) It’s important to keep your doctor informed.
Depression is a tough disease to treat, especially because its symptoms are not easily measured. All your doctor has as “measurements” are what you tell them about how you feel and that changes. So, be open and honest during your visits and remember to make follow up appointments. Your doctor can only help you as much as you help them.
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