Treatment

People with depression can respond to treatment with an antidepressant if the treatment is maintained for at least six months. Taking the antidepressant consistently and regularly will help to prevent relapse in the future.

Every patient’s experience of medication is different, but there are general guidelines in terms of what they may experience. This includes (but is not limited to) the following:

• Antidepressants can take two to four weeks to start working, so taking the medication for long enough to give it a chance to start working is important
• It may take some time to adjust and find the right dose of the medication for them
• Side-effects may be experienced before the patient feels any benefit from the treatment
• Side-effects are quite often temporary and improve over time
• Very common side-effects of antidepressants include dry mouth, nausea, headache, sleepiness or insomnia
• Common side-effects include indigestion, abdominal pain, constipation, tremor, nightmares, agitation, anxiety and palpitations
• Antidepressants are not addictive but can cause discontinuation symptoms. Encourage the patient not to stop their medication without talking to another healthcare professional
• There are many types of antidepressants, and if one does not have the desired effect or has intolerable side-effects, there are different ones that can be trialled
• Different antidepressants have different minimum effective doses and it may be that the initial starting dose is not an effective treatment dose and further dose adjustment is needed.

With antidepressants, it is not uncommon for patients to ask how long they will have to take the medication for and whether they will become addicted. On average, a person would normally take an antidepressant for between six months and two years, but every person is an individual and, ultimately, the length of treatment needed will depend on the severity of their depression, the risks associated with untreated depression and their own personal preferences.

While anti-depressants are not addictive or habit-forming, people can experience withdrawal effects when stopping them, which is why a step-down approach is recommended.