History of creation
Antidepressants are the preparations facilitating or preventing depression. Substances possessing exciting effect were actively applied for treatment of depressions, capable to cause an euphoria condition (opium and other opiates, caffeine, a ginseng) before antidepressants' opening. To reduce alarm and excitability, for example, bromine salts were applied. But the foundation of antidepressants became the present revolution in psychopharmacology in early fifties. Since then, already throughout half a century, these preparations are the basic agent for struggle against depression. In spite of the fact that the era of antidepressants has begun recently, it already has its "creation myths".
From the beginning of the twentieth century researchers studied various substances, trying to synthesize a preparation facilitating symptoms of depression, but all experiments ended with failure. The first antidepressant has been opened in 1957 absolutely casually when doctors have paid attention to action of a preparation called Iproniazidum which was applied at complex treatment of tuberculosis. Except its main effect, it has been also noted a collateral effect which showed unusual rising of mood among sick people. Soon this preparation was begun to use for simplification of depression symptoms as it was not worthy as an agent from tuberculosis.
Another "creation myth" is that preparation action was opened by Natan Klein, and its opening was too more than casual - he tried to prove the theory about ego “location” by its means. During psychoanalytical sessions, Klein has noticed that some patients have unexpectedly ceased to excite about the problem they worked on. Iproniazidum has been put on market, but soon it was discovered that it enlarges risk of an icterus, and preparation sales have been stopped.
At the same time, in Germany Ronald Kun has opened Imipramine. Kun gave his patients various preparations to construct global classification of mental diseases on the base of their reactions. German psychiatrists of that time were literally afflicted by this problem. As well as in the previous cases, the preparation has been opened, when patients started to feel better mood. Differently from Iproniazidum, according to the World Health Organization Imipramine is still in the list of official antidepressants and was the most sold among them before Prozac foundation.
When first antidepressants have been opened, nobody could assume that all kinds of therapy will practically be forced out by antidepressants, and by results of poll, spent in the end of 20 centuries in the USA, the greatest opening of the last century will be neither the relativity theory nor Internet, but a small capsule of Prozac.
Mechanism of antidepressants
Actually, antidepressants are capable to correct work of a brain. Our brain consists of a large quantity of nervous cells - neurons. Though there are communications between neurons, they don't adjoin each other immediate - there is a cleft between them, which is called synaptic cleft or synapse. The information transfer from one neutron to another and its carrying over through a synapse is carried out by the chemical intermediary - a mediator. According to the biological theory of depression - concentration of some mediators in a synapse goes down in a brain during depression. Biochemical processes of our brain are very difficult, and hundreds various mediators take part in them. Today it is allocated only 30 from them, and only three mediators are concerned immediate to depression. It is noradrenaline, a serotonin and Dofaminum. These are called biogenic amines. Antidepressants, regulating concentration of one or several biogenic amines, correct mechanisms of brain work which have been broken as a result of depression. Now we will pass from mechanisms of action of preparations which, probably, are not interesting at all, to household questions.
Accustoming to antidepressants
Nowadays about 65 percent of the population of the USA takes psychotropic preparations (first of all antidepressants and tranquilizers). And for many the accustoming question to antidepressants is important. Whether the organism will demand the next portion of pleasure pills after the end of depression? It is possible to answer more than unequivocally - the preparations applied nowadays for depression treatment don't cause accustoming in independence of treatment duration. They only help an organism to restore those mechanisms which have been broken by depression.
I took antidepressants for many years, and they have played an important role in my depression therapy, and after years when I managed with depression, and its symptoms became much weaker, I have simply ceased to accept them.
The problem of the psychiatrist is to prescribe preparations correctly. Only a half of test patients feel improvement after the first course of therapy so it is possible to name selection of preparations as a “trial and error” method. The doctor can prescribe some preparations before the most effective will be found out.
Preparation action is not shown at once - usually between time of the beginning of reception and positive effect occurrence passes not less than 2-3 weeks though in certain cases positive changes of mood can already appear in one week. Often preparations are prescribed together with other methods of treatment. Antidepressants aren't capable to fill private world with light more often and to completely relieve from depressive experiences, but they are capable to give though any sensation of stability, to weaken depression symptoms.
As a rule, new antidepressants differ from the precursors not by action, but reduction of number of by-effects. The truth is that they are more expensive thus. As it is required to accept them regularly depression treatment can cost the appreciable sum of money to the patient (I would put this fact into the list of by-effects). Therefore people often purchase Indian OTC antidepressants in Internet - they don't lose in quality, but cost cheaper considerably.
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