Anti-depressants do really treat anxiety, BUT not for everyone...For people that do not have a chemical imbalance in the brain Anti-depressants can sometimes actually provide a source of anxiety...
"To fully understand the mechanism of how drugs that are listed as 'anti-depressants', effect anxiety, one would require a rather in-depth understanding of neuroanatomy and neurochemistry. At present, even physicians and pharmacologists are not entirely sure about the mechanisms of action that many psychiatric medications operate under. Various neurological theories exist as to how these medication work and why certain formulations of the same class tend to work in different ways. When certain medications within a class of drugs are considered to be more efficient at treating one type of symptom than others, the acknowledgement of these 'sub-collections' of medications comes from success in the field. To recent knowledge the use of Sertraline(Zoloft) and Paroxetine (Paxil) are still the primary anti-depressants for use in patients whose primary disorder is of the anxiety-bound persuasion. Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Agoraphobia, Panic Disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are all anxiety disorders in which the above medications are considered to be most effective in comparison to other anti-depressants. It is perhaps helpful when asking why or if an anti-depressant will be effective in the treatment of anxiety to forget that the medication is called an 'anti-depressant'. One can easily get hung up on the classification of the drug being for the treatment of depression. I've always found it much more useful to forget about the blanket classification of being an anti-depressant and look at medication according to their proposed mechanism of action. "
"For instance, it makes sense neurochemically to prescribe a Serotonin-Reuptake Inhibitor to a patient who suffers from autonomic nervous system arousal (anxiety) just the same as it makes sense to prescrive a Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor to an individual who is experiencing depression of the autonomic nervous system and requires a little medicinal 'boost'. Both of which are sub-types of anti-depressants.
In the treatment of anxiety disorders however, it is typical protocol to prescribe an SSRI for maintenance treatment of the disorder and to concurrently prescribe a benzodiazepine, usually of the minor order such as lorazepam or alprazolam, for 'break-through' symptoms. Anti-depressants increase the activity level of a neurotransmitter in the brain that is believed to provide releif from symptoms or to correct an organic chemical imbalance. Benzodiazepines promote the activity of GABA within the brain which is the cheif inhibitory neurotransmitter. When contemplating how psychiatric medications work it is important to think of psychiatric disorders as a dysfunction or dysregulation within the actual nervous system, not just the brain or the intangible 'mind'. Psychiatric medications are merely methods of artificially inducing certain levels of behaviour in the nervous system as well as the endocrine system (hormones). They can also have a global effect across several seemingly different symptoms such as depression and anxiety, due to their proposed action on centers of the brain in which these symptoms are suspected of being produced. For simplicities sake, the only reason why certain SSRI's are given a preference for the treatment of anxiety over depression is due to that SSRI's success over the last decade or so that it has been in use. We can only speculate as to why these individual formulas which were presumed to function the same as other formulas, have been more effective in the treatment of primary anxiety disorders."If you are interested in getting certified extremely fast for Chemical Dependency Counseling and becoming a Counseling Graduate feel FREE to visit CentaurUniversity.com!
