About What Are Antidepressants: What Are Antidepressants?

What are antidepressants and how do they help people suffering from the disease? Depression not only affects the person who is going through it, but also everyone around them, including friends, family, loved ones, spouses, and children.

What are antidepressants

Depression is a common psychological condition in today’s society. Its severe form is often considered as a psychiatric disorder and often requires medication. Drug therapy is a commonly prescribed method for recovering from such conditions' especially in today’s busy world where people don’t have time for spiritual healing and for allocating extra time for each other. Anti-depressants are the name given to the various drugs prescribed for treating this kind of disorders that causes negative mood conditions. They were first discovered in the 1950’s by accident' during the development of a drug to treat tuberculosis.

What is Depression?

In order to understand what anti-depressants are let’s try to understand the term ‘depression’. It is a mood condition that is often associated with stress' personal problems' anxieties' overwork' trauma and other critical mental imbalances. Why or how depression is brought about cannot be fully explained' but it is believed that neurotransmitters play a key role in causing depression. These are the chemicals that communicate messages to the brain and depression is caused due to certain imbalances in these chemicals.

How do anti-depressants work?

Anti-depressants work on neurotransmitters' often by increasing their activity. Neurotransmitters are important for effective functionality of the brain and anti-depressants increase their availability to the brain' thereby ensuring that the brain functions normally. Their effect is usually felt on the long term' thus it is important to take them for longer time periods' often for over 3-6 months and longer' to see considerable results.

Types of Anti-depressants

Depending on their method of functionality' anti-depressants are divided into several main groups. Some of these groups are:

1) Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs)

These arrest the breakdown of monoamine neurotransmitters' which in turn increases their availability to the brain. But this drug group has very adverse side effects thus are not very popularly prescribed today.

e.g. Selegiline and Moclobemide

2) Tricyclic Anti-depressants (TCAs)

Molecules with three atom rings' this group of antidepressants are prescribed for depression disorders such as insomnia' neuralgia and other chronic pain syndromes.

Side effects include dryness of mouth and nose' sedation and blurred vision.

e.g. Imipramine

3) Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)

These are the most common anti-depressants found today' and their mode of action is by enhancing of serotonin levels in the brain.

e.g. Citalopram

4) Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs)

These drugs improve the channeling of chemicals norepinephrine and serotonin to the brain. Side effects are lesser in comparison to other anti-depressant groups.

e.g. Venlafaxine

Other not so popular anti-depressants include antipsychotics' benzodiazepines' Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors and Norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitors.

A lot of research is being carried on anti-depressant drugs' especially to replace existing forms with newer forms that have very minimal side effects.

Summary: This article gives an overview of what antidepressants are' describing how they help treat depression related disorders' while listing the various groups or forms that are found today' categorized based on their mode of action.