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What is the addiction and recovery rate for antidepressants?
Question : What is the addiction and recovery rate for antidepressants?
What is the addiction and recovery rate for antidepressants? Please include website you found the information on. THANK YOU!!!!
addiction recovery
Best answer:
Answer by ixi26c
I am a psychopharmacology student (drugs and behavior). After Thanksgiving we’re going to discuss antidepressants in-depth. But what I already know tells me you do not become addicted to antidepressants. Also, the whole concept of “addiction” isn’t defined. What you’re probably referring to is physical dependency. You would not experience this. Physical dependency is characterized by withdrawal symptoms that tend to be exaggerrated and opposite effects of the drug. But antidepressants, specifically SSRIs (Zoloft, Prozac) have a very long half-life which means it takes a very long time for the body to rid itself of the drug. When you switch antidepressants you have to wait a couple of weeks before trying a new one, otherwise you may risk serotonin toxicity (which is a neurotransmitter in your brain). If you want web sources, why don’t you just search google? I’d be careful about what web sources you trust, however. I’d more readily trust books.
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#2 written by stillstanding 1 year ago
That all depends on which drug you are talking about.
I can only speak from personal experience here and not scientific studies or the like.
I am now on Lexapro and it has helped me get over the hump of my depression, and with no side effects as of yet.
I also have heard many people praise this drug, both doctors and patients, but statistics really don’t matter at all for antidepressants.
This is because every person taking these drugs react differently to them, regardless of how many other people have been helped by a specific drug.
Antidepressant use is really just a trial and error process, no matter how popular or effective any specific drug becomes (like Prozac).
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Yeah, “addiction” is poorly defined and sort of a weird word to use here. People don’t have to “recover” from dependence on anti-depressants to help with symptoms of depression.
I can tell you, however, that there are symptoms associated with giving up anti-depressants. I can’t say how many people have them…if everyone gets them and if they’re just as severe for all people taking them. But I know a couple of things about it.
First of all, it’s true…the longer the half-life of the drug the fewer problems you will have. Prozac takes a couple of weeks to be processed by your body. That’s why it doesn’t start working until well after you take it. That’s also why most people don’t have any ill side-effects from stopping the drug. I’ve stopped Prozac cold turkey before, on the advice of a physician, without any trouble at all.
Effexor is another story. This drug has a very SHORT half-life. I was very, VERY ill when I tried to stop taking this medication, even though I tapered off slowly. In fact, during the time I was on it, if I was late with a dose by only a couple of hours I started vomitting. Had I known how hard it was to discontinue use of this drug I NEVER would have started taking it.
There is really good information on depression and the medications used to treat it at http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.html.