Long term antidepressant use

Increases in long-term antidepressant treatment of depression have contributed to the rise in antidepressant use. Do you worry about the effects of long-term use of antidepressants? But is it safe to use antidepressants for years on end?

How long to take antidepressant medicine depends on factors such as the severity of your depression, your risk for relapse, and how well the medication is working. These symptoms are usually mild and are only temporary.

A more serious physical symptom related to the long term effects of antidepressants is reduced blood clotting, as these medications can decrease the neurotransmitter serotonin concentration in platelets. But doctors say patients should weigh the pros and cons amid new research on risks. A recent review of the literature reveals that, to date, there have yet to be any randomized control trials – the gold-standard for evidence-based medicine – that evaluate the long term use of antidepressants in primary care. My experience with long-term treatment has made me skeptical of the value of antidepressants, but recent studies make me worry that I might have been harmed as well. So I’m looking for an answer to a question that I’d rather not have to ask at all.

Can long-term antidepressant use worsen depression? It is really that simple. Long-term antidepressant use was common.

One-fourth of all people who took antidepressants in the past month reported having taken them for years or more. Does anyone here have any knowledge on this, or have any reference to any long-term antidepressant use research? Antidepressant use increased nearly over a 15-year time frame, from 7. I actually created a petition on WhiteHouse. A significant body of research suggests that antidepressants may reduce the long-term capacity of the brain to autoregulate (self-regulate) neurotransmitter systems 7. However, in some people, a particular antidepressant may simply stop working over time.

In a large, retrospective study in the Netherlands of more than 10patients, antidepressant exposure was associated with the worst long term. Aim To unravel the motivations of patients and GPs causing long-term antidepressant use and to gain insight into possibilities to prevent unnecessary long-term use. Design and setting Qualitative. Loss of antidepressant effectiveness. Any antidepressant may lose its effect after months or years, sometimes because the brain has become less responsive to the drug (tolerance).

Solutions include increasing the dose and switching to another antidepressant with a different mechanism of action. American women in their 40s and. In other words, antidepressants alter the balance of serotonin in the brain, increasing the concentration outside of neurons.

With long-term antidepressant use , the brain pushes back against these drugs and eventually restores the balance of serotonin outside of the neuron with a number of compensatory changes. Physicians are seeing long-term side effects with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors far in excess of what was expected from clinical trial data, Dr. Norman Sussman said at a psychopharmacology update sponsored by New York University.

Call your doctor and explain what’s happening, Dr. There may also be long-term side effects such as weight gain, low libido, and fatigue that can be associated with taking SSRIs and. But your question gets to the heart of an important problem that we have in this country: that all medications are approved by the Food and Drug Administration on the basis of relatively short- term studies, even though many are used long-term for medical and psychiatric disorders that are chronic, if not lifelong. Annti depressants despite being on the meds for so long I’ve been through different psychiatrist over the years most not too good I. It was a delicate operation — extracting ever tinier doses of the antidepressant she had taken for three years. Thus far, most researchers have not yet begun to take into account or to face these more gross threats to the integrity of the patient's brain after prolonged exposure.

The short answer is no.