Antidepressants lift the mood but we don’t know exactly how they work. obumu.com

“Voltaire was right when he said “doctors prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less”. Almost 300 years later, this still rings true for depression.

“Antidepressants are one of the most commonly prescribed classes of medication. And while their efficacy has been established – though debated – research remains speculative about how the effects of these drugs are produced.

“Other questions, such as why they take so long to have an effect and why a certain drug may work for some patients, but not others, also remain unanswered.

Researchers are frantically trying to answer these questions to cut out some of the guess work out of prescribing antidepressants.

“And though we don’t yet have definitive answers, we’re certainly making headway.

Depression, emotion and mood

“Depression is one of the most common and disabling illnesses in the world, affecting one in five … at some point in their life.

“It ultimately affects people’s ability to function at home and work, and is characterised by low mood, loss of interest in doing pleasurable things, and disturbances with sleep, appetite, thoughts and movement.

“People who experience depression have difficulty regulating their emotions and display increased activity in the amygdala, a key region of the brain that processes emotional stimuli outside conscious awareness.

“Depressed patients are likely to have heightened negative views of themselves and believe statements such as ‘I’m worthless’, ‘the world is unfair’ and ‘I have no future.’

“Thankfully, this hyper-responsivity, and subsequent negative self-assessment, generally resolves with antidepressant treatment.”

Read this article in full at theconversation.edu.au.