Modern antidepressants and their efficacy
Antidepressants - a group of psychotropic drugs that affect the depressive effect. For the first time the use of antidepressants (iproniazid, a class of MAO inhibitors and imipramine, the class of tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine reuptake inhibitor of mixed type) has been recorded in 1957.
The pharmacological effects of antidepressants are carried out at the level of synapses. The two main methods of their work - the collapse of the blockade of neurotransmitters and their reuptake by presynaptic membrane.
At the present time all antidepressants are classified by pharmacology-agency action. This is primarily due to the nature of their therapeutic effect, which depends primarily on the mechanism of influence on the exchange of mediator, rather than the chemical nature of the active substance. Today, medical practice allocates four groups of antidepressants. But the most popular group is blockers of presynaptic dopamine capture – Diklofenzin, Bupropion (Wellbutrin) and other mixed-(A + B) - Amitriptyline, clomipramine, Doxepin, etc.
The main success of antidepressant treatment is proper diagnosis. Any depression is a complex phenomenon that requires psychopharmacological, psychotherapeutic and somatic treatment. Antidepressants are varying widely in effectiveness with depression of neurotic and psychotic levels. When assigning it should be accounted sedative and stimulant properties of drugs, as well as specific selective activity of each of them. Antidepressants have been successfully used to treat anxiety, including panic disorder, and somatic diseases, including chronic pain, somatisation disorders, alcoholism and drug addiction, phobic disorders.