Medications for depression

Lexapro worked wonders for a family member.

Cymbalta worked well for my cousin, but everyone is different.

@myacct123,

Unfortunately, anti-depressions often becomes a trial and error process. I was prescribed multiple medications before found one that worked, Wellbutrin.

There are always new ones, but sometimes the older ones work best for an individual. This article is from 2022, so may not have latest drugs, but it does talk about what providers consider when determine best medication for you.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/antidepressants/art-20046273
Another consideration is cost, often the newest drugs are not covered by insurance. You can sometimes appeal insurance coverage if can prove other options did not work.

If you care to share, what are you taking now and is there a reason you want to switch?

While I did not have much of a reaction to Lexapro, I felt as if cymbalta helped somewhat? It was always hard for me to gauge UNTIL I missed 3 days worth (complete meltdowns).
However, I didn’t intend for this to be a long term treatment and feel it is time to wean Cymbalta. Something I will share with you because sadly it’s not talked about enough in the “informed consent” part.

As mentioned, I am currently trying to wean Cymbalta and after much research and discussion with pharmacists and my therapist I will further wean following the hyperbolic method. Not the traditional linear tapering method.
Hyperbolic tapering decreases the antidepressant dose in smaller and smaller increments (weight/goal based) so that the drug’s effect on the brain is the same size at each step. This provides a safer and more comfortable wean (hopefully) also , dose reduction sizes as well as frequency can be determined based on monitoring the reaction to the previous step, so that you never feel like you have to make a giant leap down.
This method gives the body’s biological systems more time to adapt to the reductions in medication, with the aim of minimizing withdrawal symptoms and enhancing tolerability during the tapering process.

This will require I dose my own capsules given the available dosing. Typically providers just half the dose over long periods of time. However, this shouldn’t be a blanket technique given we know a medications pharmacokinetics should be treated individually, not collectively. Also the mechanism of SNRI’s are a bit more complicated and weaning the medication has been known to cause severe side effects.

My advice is once you determine your “why” (mine was PPD), do your research (which you already are!) and formulate questions to bring to your visit. QUIZ YOUR DOC!
What will it look like when we wean this medication?
What are our goals for treatment?

Not to add any pressure to the subject, just wanting to share from my personal experience as a patient and pediatric neurology + neuromuscular RN.

All the best xo

Tapering can use dose and time, as mentioned above The last part can use liquid. I have read that switching to Prozac (during the taper?) can help because Prozac has a long half life and is easier to get off. Apparently the shorter the half life, the harder to get off. I can't cite right now but am writing based on family experience.

Everyone is different. I have tried several different kinds of antidepressants over the last 9 to 15 years. The one I have stayed on the Longest is Lexapro. I find very little side-effect from it and I’m taking the maximum dose of 20 mg per day. I have tried others, but they had way too many side-effects for me to handle. I am also currently taking 50 mg of Wellbutrin per day but may be able to get off of that soon due to another bipolar med I might try. I also take trazodone at night which is an old antidepressant commonly prescribed for help getting to sleep and that helps also

I’ve also taken Celexa and Paxil. Each worked for for a while, but ten had to change later.