SSRIs have a delayed therapeutic response, with symptom relief typically taking effect after two weeks. Some individuals may notice slight improvement as early as the first week, but the full impact takes several weeks to develop.
First, it is important to remember that these medications don't work right away. Most patients notice some benefit after 3-4 weeks, while maximum benefit should occur between 12 weeks and 6 months of treatment at an adequate dose of medication.
This is why the American Psychiatric Association recommends fluoxetine, along with other SSRIs, as one of the first-choice medications that can be used to treat OCD. People taking fluoxetine may experience side effects such as: Trouble sleeping or feeling more tired than usual. Dry mouth.
For OCD, about 40-60% of people experience partial symptom reduction on an SSRI. They can be used as a standalone treatment, a complement to behavioral therapies (like exposure and response prevention), or along with adjunctive medications like an atypical antipsychotic.
Even though the drug starts to work from the first day it is taken, different people will experience the effects at different periods. Most people say they start to feel the effects of their medication after four to eight weeks of taking it consistently.
Is Lexapro or Zoloft better for OCD? Some healthcare professionals will prescribe Lexapro “off-label” to treat OCD in adult patients, but only Zoloft is FDA-approved to treat adult and pediatric patients with the condition.
Lexapro (Escitalopram)
Lexapro is an SSRI used to treat depression and generalized anxiety disorder. It can be used off-label to treat OCD.
Medication is an effective treatment for OCD. About 7 out of 10 people with OCD will benefit from either medication or Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). For the people who benefit from medication, they usually see their OCD symptoms reduced by 40-60%.
Can medication make OCD worse? The answer is yes if the medication triggers doubt within you, and you choose to perform many reassuring compulsive behaviors.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
People may also use SSRIs to treat mental health conditions that can cause intrusive thoughts, such as: OCD. PTSD. generalized anxiety disorder.
Higher doses of SSRIs were associated with significantly higher proportion of dropouts due to side-effects. These results suggests that higher doses of SSRIs are associated with greater efficacy in the treatment of OCD.
Four SSRIs that have been shown to be effective in treating OCD and are FDA-approved to treat adults with OCD in the United States are: Sertraline (brand name Zoloft) Fluoxetine (brand name Prozac) Fluvoxamine (brand name Luvox)
Psychotherapy can be an effective treatment for adults and children with OCD. Research shows that certain types of psychotherapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other related therapies (such as habit reversal training), can be as effective as medication for many people.
An SSRI can help improve OCD symptoms by increasing the levels of a chemical called serotonin in your brain. You may need to take an SSRI for up to 12 weeks before you notice any benefit. Most people need treatment for at least a year.
SSRIs work to inhibit the transporter that recycles serotonin by preventing the transport of serotonin back into the neurons from which it was released. Antidepressants take so long to work because they inactivate not just individual serotonin transporters, but also the genes in our DNA that code for the transporter.
If SSRI response is insufficient despite a trial of adequate dose and duration, switching to an alternative agent is a valid strategy. Options include another SSRI, a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), or clomipramine, with the strongest evidence favoring an additional SSRI trial.
Obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, is an anxiety disorder which, like many anxiety disorders, is marked by low levels of serotonin.
SSRIs are more effective than placebo for OCD, at least in the short-term, although there are differences between the adverse effects of individual SSRI drugs. The longer term efficacy and tolerability of different SSRI drugs for OCD has yet to be established.
Fluoxetine (Prozac) for adults and children 7 years and older. Fluvoxamine for adults and children 8 years and older. Paroxetine (Paxil, Pexeva) for adults only. Sertraline (Zoloft) for adults and children 6 years and older.
In addition, medications originally designed for depression, the SSRIs (Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro, Effexor, Cymbalta, and others), are also capable of lowering the underlying level of anxiety which takes a lot of steam out of this phenomenon.
Lexapro can be effective at reducing the symptoms of anxiety, and it may be especially helpful for multiple types of anxiety disorder, including: Specific phobias (off-label) Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) (FDA-approved)
Some common side effects of escitalopram (Lexapro) include nausea, trouble sleeping, and drowsiness.
Usually it takes between 4 to 6 weeks to feel the full effect. You might feel worse during the first few weeks of treatment before you begin to feel better. Talk to your GP if you do not feel any better after 6 weeks.