Quite a few people have mailed us for advice on medication, when it comes to depression and anxiety
It can be quite frightening and confusing as there is so much information on the internet, and it’s hard to know what to believe. I decided to chat to my friend and one of the most respected Psychiatrists in the country, Professor Jim Lucey, who is the medical director of St.Patrick’s Mental Health Hospital in Dublin, to offer some fundamental understanding on medication.
The following was put together by Professor Lucey.
Best to think of three groups of “Drugs”
A) Antidepressants, Amitriptyline or Fluoxetine (Prozac)
B) Benzodiazepines (Valium)
C) Drugs of abuse (Cocaine).
– Antidepressants save lives, and these treatments benefit people with moderate or severe depression/anxiety in a way which can be superior to diet, exercise, rest, and life style change. They restore brain connectivity and particularly so, between the executive, cognitive and emotional areas of the brain involving the frontal lobes and its cortex.
– Anti anxiety medications such as benzodiazepine or alcohol, dampen the brains responses by altering the function of the GABA system throughout the brain. This is an inhibitory neurotransmitter or brain messenger. The effect can be very rapid and relaxing like alcohol which operates on the same system. The escape from stress provokes dependency, and the chemical effect is not ultimately helpful, in contrast to the reconnection which takes place with helpful treatments. Learning is the best treatment and it is enhanced by antidepressants and reduced by benzodiazepine.
– Similarly drugs of abuse such as cocaine, rapidly produce a pleasure response by releasing large amounts of the pleasure neurotransmitter, Dopamine. Overtime learning is diminished.
All medicines are drugs but not all drugs are medicines. It follows that
A) Antidepressants are not addictive
B) Sedatives and
C) Drugs of abuse are addictive.
Secondly, while benzodiazepine should not be taken long term (longer than 6 weeks), by comparison antidepressants may be necessary for 6 to 12 months. Rarely antidepressant meds need to be taken for longer. Drugs of abuse need to stop as soon as possible, so please reach out and get the help you need if this is a problem in your life, or if it is a problem for a loved one.
Hope this helps.
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