Depression: How Medicine Can Help
Key points
- Depression is a medical illness, like diabetes or high blood pressure.
- Depression can be treated with medicine, counseling or both.
- However, not all people taking antidepressants get these side effects.
- Different antidepressants can cause different side effects.
What is depression?
Depression is a medical illness, like diabetes or high blood pressure. People don't choose to be depressed. It's not because they're weak or "crazy." Depression affects more than 17 million people in the United States each year. It's twice as common in women as in men. Symptoms of depression include the following:
- Feeling sad most of the day, nearly every day, for 2 weeks or longer
- Loss of interest in things you used to enjoy
- Lack of energy
- Sleep and appetite disturbances
- Weight changes
- Feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and worthlessness
- Not being able to make decisions
- Thoughts of death and suicide
What causes depression? The exact cause of depression is not known. Doctors think it may be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. The imbalance could be caused by your genes or by events in your life. Sometimes there aren't enough chemical messengers (called neurotransmitters) in the brain. Two primary messengers, called serotonin (say "seer-o-tone-in") and norepinephrine (say "nor-ep-in-ef-rin"), are responsible for your moods (how you feel).
How will my doctor treat my depression?
Depression can be treated with medicine, counseling or both. The combination of medicine with counseling helps most people. Counseling can help you change a negative view of yourself, your past and your future. Exercising on a regular basis and avoiding alcohol, illegal drugs and too much caffeine can also help.
Medicines that treat depression are called antidepressants. They help increase the number of chemical messengers (serotonin and norepinephrine) in your brain.
How will my doctor choose an antidepressant for me?
Your doctor will probably think about the following 10 points when choosing an antidepressant medicine for you:
- If you were depressed before and a certain antidepressant worked well, that antidepressant might be the right choice of medicine for you again.
- If any of your brothers or sisters, parents, uncles or aunts had depression and a certain antidepressant worked well for them, that medicine might work for you too.
- The choice of an antidepressant depends on your health. If a certain antidepressant would have a bad effect on a health problem you have, that medicine wouldn't be the right choice for you.
- Antidepressants may cause side effects. The right medicine for you may be the one that gives you the fewest side effects.
Written and revised by
David Cohen, M.D.
Our doctors write and review articles for accuracy and keep them up to date.
health.am provides general information, not medical advice. Always consult a qualified health professional about your own health.
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