Getting Off Antidepressants

More http://tinyurl.com/Anafranil The use of antidepressants has been steadily increasing since they were first developed 50 years ago, with no end in sight (see graph, below). These drugs are not only used for what might be considered a neurologically depressed mental state: about half the prescriptions are for eating disorders, post-traumatic stress syndrome, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive syndromes, chronic pain, and a variety of other conditions. The first major class of drugs put into clinical use for these applications were the tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs); the main drugs are amitriptyline (Elavil), imipramine (Tofranil), and nortriptyline (Pamelor). These were followed by monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), of which phenelzine (Nardil) and tranylcypromine (Parnate) are still used for treatment resistant depression. One of the recent additions to the antidepressants is the class of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The commercial names of some SSRIs are well-known, such as: Prozac (fluoxetine), Paxil (paroxetine), Lexapro (escitalopram), and Zoloft (sertraline). The first SSRI, Prozac, was introduced in 1985, so there is now 20 years experience with this group of drugs. A newer class of antidepressants are serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), represented by Effexor (venlafaxine), introduced in 1993 (see Appendix for additional history of the drugs).