Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) often a doctor's first choice for most types of depression.
Doctors often start by prescribing an SSRI. These drugs are considered safer and generally cause fewer bothersome side effects than other types of antidepressants. SSRIs include citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro), fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil, Pexeva), sertraline (Zoloft) and vilazodone (Viibryd).
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the most commonly prescribed antidepressants. They can ease symptoms of moderate to severe depression, are relatively safe and typically cause fewer side effects than other types of antidepressants do.
SSRIs are the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants. An imbalance of serotonin may play a role in depression. These drugs fight depression symptoms by decreasing serotonin reuptake in your brain.
SSRIs. This group of drugs, including fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), fluvoxamine (Luvox), citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Cipralex) and sertraline (Zoloft), is usually the first choice for treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.
The first-line medicine for patients with depression is generally a SSRI, e.g. citalopram, escitalopram, sertraline or fluoxetine (Tables 1 and 2).
The best medicine to treat depression varies from person to person. SNRIs tend to be more effective than SSRIs, but some people will find that SSRIs are more effective for them. A physician or psychiatrist can discuss your health history and symptoms to determine whether an SSRI or SNRI is best for you.
SSRIs and SNRIs work in very similar ways, and the main difference is just that SNRIs impact two neurotransmitters rather than one to help restore mental balance and reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Both classes of antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), produce similar side effects. However, SSRIs are more commonly prescribed for treating depression because they are less likely to cause severe side effects.
SSRIs tend to be more commonly prescribed than SNRIs because they are effective at improving mood and tend to be less likely than some SNRIs to cause side effects. Other conditions that SSRIs are approved to treat, in addition to depression, include: Anxiety. Bulimia.
Bupropion, citalopram, escitalopram, and sertraline were better tolerated than the other antidepressants. Escitalopram and sertraline were found to have the best combination of efficacy and acceptability.
Paroxetine is the most potent inhibitor of the reuptake of serotonin among the available SSRIs. It has approved indications for the treatment of major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and social phobia in adults.
In general, SSRIs are considered the most well-tolerated antidepressants, per the Mayo Clinic; they typically have fewer side effects than other types and can be safely used at higher doses. Common side effects of SSRIs include sexual dysfunction, weight gain, trouble sleeping, drowsiness, dizziness, and nausea.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved two new antidepressant medications that represent new approaches to treating depression: brexanolone and esketamine.
Altogether, our study reveals that SNRIs achieve faster antidepressant effects than SSRIs by elevating the dopamine concentrations in the mPFC and the NAc. Our work proposes further mechanisms for the first-line antidepressants, which provides more basis for clinical treatments.
Starting an antidepressant can't actually make your depression worse. But it can cause side effects that are very similar to depression. Antidepressants can make you feel tired, cause concentration problems, and lead to changes in sleep and appetite.
Direct switch: In a direct switch, you stop taking your current drug and start on a new antidepressant the next day. It's possible to make a direct switch if you're going from an SSRI or SNRI to another drug in the same class.
SSRIs release two chemicals in the brain that kick in at different times, causing a period of negative effects on mental health, the authors report. The first chemical is serotonin, which is released very soon after an SSRI is taken but might not lessen depressive symptoms until after a couple of weeks.
Serotonin is sometimes called a “feel-good” chemical because it's associated with positive feelings of well-being. Norepinephrine is related to alertness and energy. It's believed that SNRIs help treat depression by keeping up the levels of these two chemical messengers in your brain.