Antidepressant Therapy

Antidepressant therapy is treatment with medications, called antidepressants, developed to treat major depressive disorder and now also used for anxiety disorders, chronic pain and addiction. Common side effects include dry mouth, weight gain, dizziness, headache and sexual dysfunction, and stopping an antidepressant, particularly one in the SSRI class, can produce a discontinuation syndrome resembling a return of depression, which is why doses are typically tapered gradually rather than stopped abruptly. Clinical evidence supports the effectiveness of antidepressants for treating depression in adults, though the evidence is more limited in children and adolescents, and individual response to any given antidepressant varies considerably.