Medication for depression
If you're suffering from depression, there will be a reduced amount of the chemical messengers known as neurotransmitters in your brain. The most important neurotransmitters are:
- Serotonin
- Noradrenaline (Norepinephrine)
- Dopamine
When we treat depression with antidepressants, the amount of these neurotransmitters in the brain is increased. This means that the medication helps return your mood to normal.
Advances in medication for depression
The last 40 years has seen rapid progress of medications available for depression.
Many types of antidepressant have been developed all of them highly effective. If you take your medication as prescribed, you will almost always be cured relatively quickly.
Today most people suffering from depression are treated with medicines by their family doctor. In Australia, about 97% of depressive episodes are diagnosed and treated by general practitioners, with less than 5% of GPs referring patients to psychiatrists. The more modern medications have the following advantages:
- Are effective against depression
- Act after a relatively short period of time
- Generally have few or only brief side-effects
- Are not addictive
- Do not require you to give blood samples, etc.
Treatment with antidepressants should always be combined with regular follow-ups with your doctor. Here your doctor can, among other things, provide:
- Detailed information about depression
- Information about the benefits and drawbacks (side-effects) of your treatment
Should you be examined by your doctor?
It's important that a doctor always examines you if you have the symptoms of depression. This is just as important for young people as for the elderly. This examination should ideally be backed up with:
- A physical examination and blood tests.
The purpose of the examination is to enable your doctor to rule out the possibility of your depression being caused by a physical problem such as a thyroid problem.
It is essential to rule out this possibility because some medical conditions can be confused with depression. If this is the case, treatment with antidepressants will of course be inappropriate.