Antidepressants

Journalists love declaring that psychiatric medications symbolize some slice of the zeitgeist. So I can't say I was entirely surprised when I opened my mailbox the other day and saw New York Magazine's latest cover article proclaiming that this is the era of Xanax.

By Ricki Rusting (Click here for the original article) Antidepressants restore well-being to many people, but sometimes at the cost of such side e...

As a psychiatrist specializing in the treatment of women during pregnancy, I am regularly consulted by pregnant women, their families and their obstetricians about whether or not to use medication to treat a clinical depression during pregnancy.

Popular herbal preparations of St. John's Wort have become an excellent first line of defense in mild depression for those concerned about pharmaceutical side effects. But did you know that a diluted homeopathic form of St. John's Wort is highly useful for a wide variety of additional health-related problems?

Many people refuse to even consider having their loved on put on any psychotropic medication for any reason. And that's understandable. But today's medications, which can be given in doses that don't overly sedate patients, can also be effective and improve a patient's overall quality of life.

If you call your sadness, irritability, loneliness, disappointments, and overwhelm "the mental disorder of depression," does calling all that pain make it "the mental disorder of depression"?

Anxious, fatigued or depressed? You are not alone -- one in five Americans is popping pills for these issues -- but pills, exercise or diet shouldn't top your list of treatments, says Bay Area author, founder of OwningPink.com and integrative medicine physician Dr. Lissa Rankin.

A funny thing happened once I got my magic pills home. Looking at them motivated me to figure out an alternative way to handle the issue.

It has been apparent for many years that chronic exposure to SSRI antidepressants frequently makes people feel apathetic or less engaged in their lives, and ultimately more depressed.

Addressing depression in older adults with dementia without using an antidepressant can be difficult and requires additional effort to consider their individual circumstances and to engage them.

The question of whether or not you should start taking antidepressants is complex and difficult to answer. But even fuzzier is the question of when or if you should stop.

Medication may be the best thing for you, but there are alternatives that you and your doctor may decide you should try first.

Depression remains mysterious, and those who suffer from it tend to hide their condition... When you're in the throes of depression, it's hard to escape the feeling that you are a failure and that the future is hopeless.

Many tragic acts of suicide and violence could be averted by reducing or stopping the use of anti-depressant drugs, and by greater professional and public awareness of the dangers associated with these drug.

The judge declared in his decision, "His basic normalcy now further confirms he no longer poses a risk of violence to anyone and that his mental deterioration and resulting violence would not have taken place without exposure to Prozac."

Among the balloons that exploded during this super-heated summer was the intensifying debate over the worth of psychotropic medications. We try to weigh the risks of psychoactive drug treatment against the risks of forgoing treatment.

Instead of new antidepressants, what the world needs are new and better psychotherapies, and more available and better-trained psychotherapists.

Feeling better and living a freer life is strengthened by cultivating higher ideals, by consistently entertaining better and freer thoughts of life.

When you're depressed, remember this: almost everybody gets better. And there are many ways -- more than we imagine today -- to get better. There's a lot more to treating depression than drugs.