So what should you do if your antidepressant just isn't doing what it used to? As an antidepressant user for over seven years, I'm one of the lucky ones — I've never had to switch medications. But I have had to undergo dosage shifts as my depression changes, taking higher doses to cope with more severe bouts and having long discussions with therapists and doctors about new choices. If you suspect your antidepressant isn't working or isn't working as well as it used to and have taken it for long enough to assess that some specific medications, for example, need to be taken for six to eight weeks before they're fully effective , you don't need to panic — but you absolutely do need to tell your psychiatrist, your GP, or any other people who help you take care of your mental health.
A productive first step in figuring out whether your antidepressants have stopped working is in understanding precisely what might be going wrong. The technical term for a diminishing response to a drug or medication of any kind is tachyphylaxis , though in the case of antidepressants it has a special name: the "Prozac poop-out.
But where does tachyphlyaxis in antidepressants come from? The answer is more complex than it seems. The simple answer when most drugs "stop working" is that the body has developed a "tolerance" to the current dosage or composition of the drug , and just isn't responding in the same way any more.
Jerry Kennard over at Health Central highlights that this tolerance can develop in several ways: the brain itself might stop reacting, or the levels of the medication in your bloodstream might lower gradually. But the problem is that antidepressants don't produce effects like this in a uniform way; there's no predictable point at which we all hit "tolerance," and scientists aren't sure why this happens in certain people and not others.
WebMD definitely lists it as a factor , but points out that it's very hard to track; it appears to be part of a matrix of different factors in a very complicated balance. BahadirTanriover Getty Images. Your medication was altered on the DL. LIgorko Getty Images. Sergey Tinyakov Getty Images. Sanny11 Getty Images. AnnaRise Getty Images. Visivasnc Getty Images. Francesco Carta fotografo Getty Images.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. Missing doses and attempting to compensate with more dosages can cause mood swings and worsen emotional instability. In some cases, depression and substance abuse are fairly common with depression. According to one study , those suffering with unipolar depression had an When considering any kind of dependence or abuse of substances, that number jumped up As we get older, our bodies process everything differently.
Metabolism adjusts, and so treatment that may have previously been effective might not be doing the same job that it used to. Just as we digest and store foods differently as we get older, medications can be handled in new ways.
This can potentially result in one treatment that was previously potent enough to treat symptoms no longer being enough on its own. For some people, certain medications are not effective to begin with.
According to a Canadian Psychology Association report , mild to moderate depression can respond to psychotherapy alone, without medication. They found that psychotherapy is as effective as medication in treating some kinds of depression and is more effective than medication in preventing relapse in some cases. Also, for some patients, the combination of psychotherapy and medication was more beneficial than either treatment on its own. According to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry , adding cognitive therapy to medication for bipolar disorder reduced relapse rates.
This study examined patients with bipolar 1 disorder who, despite taking a mood stabilizer, experienced frequent relapses.
During a month period, the group receiving cognitive therapy had significantly fewer bipolar episodes and reported less mood symptoms on the monthly mood questionnaires. They also had less fluctuation in manic symptoms. Persevere until you achieve full remission and feel like yourself again. It will happen. Trust me on that. Incorporating small changes into your day can help boost mood and ease symptoms of depression. If you've heard of unipolar depression you may wonder how it's different from regular depression or bipolar depression.
Here's what you need to know. You two are close. So you might pick up on the signs of a depressive episode.
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