Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 3: Identify Signs Your Treatment is Effective
• Method 2 of 3: Track Your Symptoms on a Mobile App
• Method 3 of 3: Discuss the situation with your psychiatrist

Antidepressants are medications that are used along with other therapies to treat various types of depression. When we deal with antidepressants, it is rather difficult to assess how effective a particular drug is for a given patient, since these drugs begin to work some time after the start of therapy. In most cases, you need to take the drug for four to six weeks before it starts working. When the antidepressant starts to work, you may notice some side effects, and after a while the positive effect of the drug will also appear: you will feel a surge of strength and energy and will begin to look at life more positively. If the prescribed antidepressant does not have the desired effect or causes too many side effects, the doctor may change the drug and adjust the treatment plan. Today, doctors most often prescribe selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) as antidepressants,selective norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), as well as relatively old drugs - tricyclic and tetracyclic antidepressants. Your healthcare provider will monitor whether the prescribed treatment regimen is working for you and will also recommend alternative treatments based on your condition.

Attention:the information in this article is for informational purposes only. Check with your healthcare professional before using any medication.

Steps

Method 1 of 3: Identify Signs Your Treatment is Effective

1. 1 Be patient. Be prepared in advance that it will take time to find antidepressants (or a combination of drugs) that will work for you. It is often necessary to change several drugs until you can find the right one. In addition, you need to take the drugs for a long time (from four to six weeks) so that they begin to have a noticeable effect on the person's condition.
   • Set yourself up for long-term treatment. After the start of treatment, some time should pass, after which the drug begins to act, and this time depends on the individual characteristics of the human body. Sometimes you can notice positive changes in your condition within one or two days after the start of the antidepressant course. However, in most cases, it takes several weeks or even months for the medicine to take effect.
   • If you have been taking an antidepressant for more than six weeks and still do not feel positive changes, discuss the situation with your doctor. Most likely, he will replace the drug with another antidepressant.
2. 2 Watch your condition improve. Keep a journal to describe your symptoms daily. If, before starting treatment, you felt that the future was bleak and hopeless, try to pay attention to how your attitude towards the future has changed two weeks after starting a course of antidepressants. If you have a feeling that you are doing everything slowly and are having difficulty concentrating on tasks, check to see if these symptoms have changed under the influence of treatment.
   • Get tested regularly for your depression level to track your symptoms. There are many questionnaires on the Internet to assess the symptoms of depression. Answer test questions about symptoms and watch to see if results change over time.
   • In addition, you can keep a health diary or use special mobile applications to monitor the symptoms of depression over time.
3. 3 Pay attention to the positive changes. If you start feeling more energetic during the day or less pessimistic about life, this is an indicator that your antidepressants are taking effect. If you notice an improvement in your well-being two to six weeks after starting treatment, this is a very good sign.
4. 4 Pay attention to side effects. Antidepressants work to reduce the symptoms of depression, however, like any medication, they have side effects. Therefore, you need to pay attention to both the improvement in your condition and the side effects that may occur as a result of taking the drug. Although new generation antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs N) have far fewer side effects than previous generation drugs, various undesirable symptoms occur quite often during treatment. Side effects include decreased sex drive, dry mouth, nausea, sleep disturbances, anxiety and anxiety, weight gain, drowsiness, and constipation and diarrhea. In most cases, side effects appear before the therapeutic effect develops from taking the drug.Thus, if you notice the appearance of unpleasant symptoms, this may be a signal that the drug is starting to work. However, you need to tell your doctor if you have any side effects.
   • If the side effects do not diminish and persist for a long time, you should talk with your doctor about replacing the antidepressant you are taking with another drug.
   • If you notice that your symptoms of depression are improving, but you experience unpleasant side effects, be sure to discuss the situation with your doctor.
5. 5 Look for signs that antidepressants are not having the desired therapeutic effect. It is extremely important to monitor your condition in order to notice in time that the prescribed treatment is ineffective. There are quite a few signs that can help you determine if the prescribed antidepressant is not right for you. Particular attention should be paid to abrupt, unreasonable mood swings, the appearance of suicidal thoughts, as well as an increase in the general level of energy, accompanied by a depressed emotional state. Below are some of the symptoms that indicate that the prescribed treatment regimen is not right for you.
   • If you feel a surge of energy, but your mood and emotional state remain depressed, this is a rather bad sign. In some cases, the antidepressant begins to work, but the mechanisms of its action on the body do not correspond to the characteristics of your condition. In this case, you will feel a surge of strength, but the depressive emotional state will not change. Be sure to contact your doctor and describe your symptoms to him.
   • You may be surprised, but if you feel better immediately after you start taking antidepressants, it can also be a signal that the drug is not right for you. In most cases, it takes a long time for an antidepressant to begin to affect brain biochemistry. If you feel immediate improvement, it may be due to a side effect of the drug, or you may have a placebo effect. In any case, contact your doctor and discuss your condition with him.
   • If your symptoms of depression worsen while taking antidepressants, or if you have very severe mood swings, this may be a signal that the prescribed drug is not suitable for you. Be sure to talk to your doctor about this.
   • It is noted that taking antidepressants causes the appearance of suicidal thoughts and suicidal behavior in people under the age of 25 during the first two months of treatment. If you or someone close to you have suicidal thoughts, symptoms of depression, or you notice significant changes in behavior while taking antidepressants, contact your doctor immediately. At the same time, it is important to continue taking the prescribed drugs, unless the doctor tells you to stop therapy.

Method 2 of 3: Track Your Symptoms on a Mobile App

1. 1 Install a mobile app to help you monitor your emotional state. Quite a few applications (both paid and free) have been developed to help track the state of depression. These apps include many features that allow you to track depression dynamics, learn about new activities, and communicate with healthcare professionals. Unfortunately, today most of the apps are only available in English.
2. 2 Install the Start app. Start was developed by Iodine on Apple's Care Kit platform for healthcare applications. It helps people track the dynamics of depression symptoms and allows them to send results directly to their healthcare provider. Unfortunately, this application is currently not available in Russia. In the app, you can take a short test every two weeks called the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9 Depression Test).The test results provide an opportunity to see if the symptoms of depression improve with treatment. Alternatively, you can use the application in Russian "Test for depression PHQ-9". You need to use this application for six weeks and then discuss the results with your doctor. This will make it possible to determine whether the prescribed treatment is effective in your case.
3. 3 Record your mood in the CBT Self-Help Guide app. This is a mobile diary app where you can track how you perceive and react to events throughout the day. You need to write in a diary information about events in your life, associated mood and intensity of emotions. This will help you track symptoms of depression while taking antidepressants. If you start using this app before starting treatment, you can use it to assess whether your mood has improved since you start medication. Unfortunately, at the moment this application is only available in English.
4. 4 Install the MoodKit app (in English). This app will help you track your mood and learn about various activities to improve your mood. This application will be useful for people with mild depression, but is unlikely to help with moderate to severe forms of the disease. In this case, this application can be used as an additional tool for tracking mood, which you will use in conjunction with other therapeutic methods. You can also use a similar application in Russian "Diary - Mood Tracker".
5. 5 Use the free T2 Mood Tracker app (in English). This application will help you track your emotional state at different points in time, and its functionality includes the ability to present information in a graphical form. This will allow you to monitor the manifestations of depression, so that you can more reliably communicate this information to your doctor. By carefully and accurately entering information into the app and discussing the dynamics with your doctor, you can reliably determine how effectively your antidepressants are working.
   • Install the free What’s My M3 application, which is available for download in the App Store. This app helps you keep track of your M3 test results so your doctor can determine how treatable your disorder is. If you use this app during your antidepressant treatment, you will be able to send your doctor information about the test results. As of today, the app is only available in English.

Method 3 of 3: Discuss the situation with your psychiatrist

1. 1 Talk with your doctor about how you feel while on antidepressant treatment. Tell your doctor in detail how your body responds to the prescribed drugs. If you are using a mobile app to track your condition, use the information provided to get an overview of the effects of antidepressants.
   • If you keep a diary, reread your treatment notes when you go to your next doctor's appointment. This will give you an overview of your mood, your emotional state, and your body's response to medication.
   • If you have been taking a certain antidepressant for a long time and feel that the drug is no longer giving the same effect as before, be sure to tell your doctor about it.
   • Over time, a person may develop tolerance (addiction) to a particular antidepressant, meaning the drug becomes less effective. In this case, the symptoms of depression may return. If you think you are experiencing something like this, report it to your psychiatrist. The doctor will change the recommended dosage of the drug or change the drug to another antidepressant.
2. 2 Check with your healthcare professional regularly. Tell your doctor all information related to your mood during antidepressant treatment. With this information, the healthcare professional will be able to determine if a given antidepressant regimen is right for you. Be sure to tell your doctor about any positive changes in your condition, as well as any side effects that you notice.
   • Tell your doctor if you miss another drug intake or if you have had a break in treatment. Disruption to continuous medication use is one of the common reasons why antidepressant treatment is less effective than expected. Therefore, tell your doctor if you missed a dose for any reason.
   • If you have taken any medication or drank alcohol while on antidepressant treatment, tell your psychiatrist. Interaction with other substances can affect the effect of the antidepressant.
   • If you experience severe side effects, your doctor may stop the prescribed drug and replace it with another drug.
   • Never change the daily dosage of the drug and never stop taking an antidepressant without first talking to your doctor. If you suddenly stop taking an antidepressant, your symptoms of depression may worsen and withdrawal symptoms are very likely. If you need to stop treatment for any reason, your psychiatrist will explain how to gradually and safely reduce the dosage.
3. 3 Find out which antidepressants can serve as alternatives to your current medication. According to a large number of clinical studies, only 37% of patients experience improvement with the first antidepressant prescribed to them. Your doctor will be able to assess how effective the prescribed drug is in your case and whether it is necessary to replace it with a drug from a different group of antidepressants.
   • Most often, antidepressants from the SSRIs and SSRIs groups are prescribed to treat depression. In many countries, bupropion preparations (Wellbutrin, Zyban preparations), which are classified as selective norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), are widely used. These medicines are used to treat depression, seasonal affective disorder, and nicotine addiction. However, in the Russian Federation, bupropion was excluded from the state register of medicines on August 22, 2016, so psychiatrists are not allowed to prescribe this drug for the treatment of depression.
   • In addition, in some cases, psychiatrists prescribe older drugs such as tricyclides, monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), and tetracyclides. A person's response to antidepressants of various groups depends on the individual characteristics of his body. For this reason, you need to keep in touch with your healthcare provider to come up with a treatment plan that works for you. If the first drug you prescribed didn't work, your doctor will likely replace it with an antidepressant from a different group.
4. 4 Consider taking a course of psychotherapy. Combining medication and working with a therapist or psychologist is much more effective than antidepressant medication alone. Today, specialists offer various types of psychotherapeutic assistance, and the following types are recommended for the treatment of depression.
   • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: this form of therapeutic work is aimed at helping a person become aware of how he perceives himself and the world around him, and, if necessary, change his way of thinking. A therapist can help you develop healthier, positive ways of thinking.
   • Intrapersonal therapy: this form of therapy is recommended for people whose depression is caused by family conflicts, the loss of a loved one, relationship problems, social isolation, and significant life events such as the birth of a child.
   • Psychodynamic therapy: in this method, the therapist helps the patient to solve subconscious problems, for example, to work through childhood trauma.