Choosing an Antidepressant
By Mark Ragins, MD
There are about a dozen commonly used antidepressants today. They’ve all been used to treat a wide range of people with depressive symptoms, often including low mood, poor sleep, poor appetite, hard to enjoy things, low energy, low motivation, low sex drive, negative overthinking, anxiety, panic, slowed thinking, poor concentration, negative self-evaluation, hopelessness, helplessness, and suicidal thoughts and actions. They all work for about 2/3 to 3/4 of people in 6 – 12 week studies. This can make us think that they’re all the same and choose pills just based on their most common side effects, but they aren’t’ all the same, and if you spend enough time trying different medications at deferent dosages its likely we can find something that will hardly any significant side effects. Therefore, I’d recommend choosing antidepressants based upon what effect we think would be of the most benefit, and deal with side effects as they emerge, or don’t emerge. Remember, most people won’t get any side effects, at least after the first few days, from an antidepressant.