Everyone gets depressed from time to time (this is quite normal), but when you decide to turn to anxiety depression medication because feelings of emptiness and despair have completely taken hold of you and it wouldn’t budge, you should know that you are suffering from depression. This condition almost makes it impossible to function and enjoy life the way you ought to.

When you are depressed, you may experience the following symptoms:

    Always being in a sad or irritable mood
    Feeling guilty, hopeless, worthless and empty
    Difficulty keeping your thought together, remembering and concentrating
    Recurrent thoughts of committing suicide
    Thinking consistently about death and dying
    Physical slowing or agitation
    Loss of appetite, energy and pronounced changes in sleeping patterns
    Lack of interest in activities that were once pleasurable
    Headaches, chronic pains and digestive disorders that do not respond to treatment.

Anxiety depression medication such as antidepressants often takes up to four weeks before having any kind of effect on its users. It also takes about six to twelve weeks for antidepressants to really take their full effect. According to research, imbalance in the neurotransmitters like serotonin, norephinephrine and dopamine can be corrected with the use of antidepressants.

There are different classes of anxiety depression medication used for treating anxiety depression and some of these medications include:

    Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (aka SSRIs) – They are the most prescribed drugs for treating depression throughout the entire world. They are known to act on the neurotransmitter serotonin. These agents increase the serotonin level by blocking the reuptake of serotonin from the synapse to the nerve, thereby (artificially) increasing the serotonin that can be found in the synapse. SSRIs include Sertraline (Zoloft), Citalopram (Celexa), Fluoxetine (Prozac) Paroxetine (Paxil), Fluvoxamine (Luvox) and Escitalopram (Lexapro).
    Monoamine Oxidas Inhibitors (MAOIs) – These anxiety depression medication works by inactivating enzymes in the brain which sort of chew-up norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine away from the synapse, which in turn increases the level of these chemicals in the brain. They are not the safest antidepressants around but they can be pretty effective in treating individuals who do not respond other medications. MAOIs include isocarboxazid (Marplan), Phenelzine (Nardil) and tranylcypromine sulphate (Parnate).
    Serotonin and Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs) – These anxiety depression medication are very common, in fact they are the second most common antidepressants used for treating depression worldwide. These agents work by blocking the reuptake of serotonin and norephinephrine from the synapse into the nerve, this leads to the increase in the amount of these chemicals. SNRIs are: duloxetine (Cymbalta) and venlafaxine (Effexor).
    Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCAs) – These are known as “older agents” and they work just like the SNRIs, but the difference is that they have other neurochemical properties which lead to a very high side effect rate in comparison to other antidepressants. They are mostly used to treat depression where other antidepressants have failed. TCAs include: protriptyline (Vivactil), dessipramine (Norpramin), amitriptyline (Elavil, Limbitrol), Impramine (Norpramin, Tofranil) and doxepin (Sinequan).