October 27, 2009 2:58 PM PDT -- Depression researcher Eva Redei presented research at the Neuroscience 2009 conference in Chicago this week that calls into question two tenets of depression science: that stressful life events are a major cause of depression, and that an imbalance in neurotransmitters triggers depressive symptoms.

For decades, drugs have been developed around these beliefs, leading to antidepressant medications that are actually designed to relieve stress. But stress-related genes have almost no overlap with depression-related genes, reports Redei, the David Lawrence Stein professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. (Full disclosure: Northwestern is my alma mater.)

That means those antidepressants work if you're stressed, but not necessarily if you're depressed.

"This is a huge study and statistically powerful," Redei says. "This research opens up new routes to develop new antidepressants that may be more effective. There hasn't been an antidepressant based on a novel concept in 20 years."

Lexapro and Zoloft Top Treatments for

Depression

“I’ve grown up on medication,” my patient Julie told me recently. “I don’t have a sense of who I really am without it.”

At 31, she had been on one antidepressant or another nearly continuously since she was 14. There was little question that she had very serious depression and had survived several suicide attempts . In fact, she credited the medication with saving her life.

But now she was raising an equally fundamental question: how the drugs might have affected her psychological development and core identity.

It was not an issue I had seriously considered before. Most of my patients, who are adults, developed their psychiatric problems after they had a pretty clear idea of who they were as individuals. During treatment, most of them could tell me whether they were back to their normal baseline.

Depression Meds --They shouldn't zonk you or make you feel numb

If an antidepressant is working well, you feel the way you want to feel, but couldn't.  The goal of an antidepressant is to make your own brain chemistry work closer to normal, by using your own neurotransmitters more effectively.

Many people dislike taking medication, and especially people who are depressed think of themselves as failures if they take medication for a mood disorder. But this feeling is often part of the disease.

Two common questions most people ask, "Are anti-depressants addicting?" and "Are they dangerous?"

Anti-depressants are not addicting (and hence are not a street drug). Most are slow acting, needing to be taken every day, and become effective in about 3 weeks. Many people have heard horror stories about Prozac, most of which are more rumor than truth. There are extremely few people who get symptoms such as reported in the media with Prozac, such as increased anger and agitation.

 The medical profession is also learning better which type of anti-depressants are best suited for which type of depression. As with any medication, there can be some side-effects. Most side effects are annoying, such as stomach distress or dry mouth. A few are serious, so your physician will want to monitor you carefully. And don’t give up, since if one anti-depressant does not work, there are several others to try that work differently. The good news is that there are many more choices of medication, with fewer risks and side effects than ever before.

Anti-depressants help you by changing the way the brain chemistry works. Being depressed is somewhat like having a car battery that will not keep a charge. The body’s electrical system is not working properly, and is sluggish. Anti-depressants improve the way that neurotransmitters work in the brain. Neurotransmitters are responsible for an adequate functioning of our brain chemistry and a sense of well-being. Antidepressants help "raise the thermostat" on moods, so the point at which moods fluctuate is raised to a more comfortable level.

Untapped Potential Of Antidepressants For Cancer

ScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2008) — A comprehensive review of current scientific literature, published in the peer-reviewed journal ecancer, has suggested that antidepressants can help the human body fight cancer by boosting its own immune response, amongst other mechanisms.

Not only this but they can help with side effects from chemotherapy such as aiding sleep, stimulating appetite, combating pain and avoiding depression.

Antidepressants work by affecting levels of chemicals known as prostaglandins. These are ephemeral, infinitesimal signallers self-regulating every cell in the body, including those serving mood and immunity. When first discovered they were perceived as a master switch, but are now believed to regulate every component of cellular microanatomy and physiology, including those of the organelles, cytoskeleton, proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids and mitochondria.

Escitalopram (Lexapro) Will Remain as the Clinical Gold Standard Treatment For Major Depressive Disorder

Current and Emerging Drugs Continue to Struggle for Patient Share in the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder Owing to Safety, Escitalopram Will Remain as the Clinical Gold Standard Treatment, According to a New Report from Decision Resources

 

WALTHAM, Mass., July 15, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that a drug's long-term efficacy in preventing recurrence of depressive mood episodes in patients who suffer from major depressive disorder, is the attribute that most influences psychiatrists' prescribing decisions in the treatment of this disorder. Clinical data and expert opinion show that current and emerging therapies will continue to struggle for patient share through subtle differences in efficacy, tolerability and delivery.