I did a post on top searched health conditions that you don't talk about a little while ago and depression was the No. 1 searched condition. Depression is no joke. According to Mental Health America, approximately 15 percent of people hospitalized for depression eventually take their own lives.They also state that depression is a common condition in the U.S. More than 19 million Americans have clinical depression. More interestingly, one in eight teens and one in 33 children have clinical depression. Now that's scary.
I was also surprised to read on their Web site that less than half of those who suffer from depression seek treatment. People who don't seek treatment generally feel embarrassed or view it as a personal weakness rather than an illness. The good news is, depression is treatable -- 80 percent of people who seek treatment show improvement.
So for the post today, I've listed the top searched antidepressants on AOL Search. It seems that I see at least several ads a day for antidepressants (maybe I just read too many health articles!) and I'm sure you do, too. Before taking any medication, especially for a serious condition, you should always do your research.
You can read more about depression on AOL Body and search for depression treatment on AOL Search.
Top searched depression medications on AOL Search:
1. Lexapro
2. Cymbalta
3. Zoloft
4. Wellbutrin
5. Effexor XR
6. Prozac
7. Paxil
8. Celexa
9. Trazodone
10. Remeron
See sponsored links for: depression symptoms, antidepressants, depression medication.
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 18)
21. ive suffered with major depression my entire life.i ve seen doctors since i was 9 years old.the only thing keeping me alive is a combination of prozac and zyprexa,the drugs main side effects are weight gain,but without them i probably wouldnt be here.i highly recomened drug thereapy.give the drugs about 3 months to work.you will feel much better!:)
Posted at 8:45PM on Aug 12th 2007 by rory
22. I'VE BEEN ON ANTIDEPRESSANTS FOR MANY YEARS. I HAVE TRIED MANY MANY DRUGS. I HAVE HAD SIDE EFFECTS FROM ALL OF THEM. SOME WERE SEVERE SOME NOT SO BAD. BUT THE THING IS I HAD THEM. AND THEY DON'T GO AWAY UNLESS YOU STOP THEM. I AM PRESENTLY ON PROZAC AND IT IS WORKING SOMEWHAT. I AM ON A VERY SMALL DOSAGE. I STILL HAVE MY UPS AND DOWNS. I AM ALSO ON KLONAPIN OR MY ANXIETIES. MOST OF MY PROBLEMS ARE WITH FEARS. WHETHER IT BE GETTING THINGS DONE IN THE HOUSE BY A CERTAIN TIME, THE KIDS, OR FEAR OF DYING OR GETTING SOME INCURABLE DISEASE. I STILL HAVE MY DAYS, BUT SOME ARE GOOD. I ALWAYS PRAY THAT SOMEDAY I'LL BE A HAPPY PERSON. BECAUSE RIGHT NOW I'M NOT. THERE ARE SOME THINGS IN MY LIFE MOSTLY WITH MY HUSBAND THAT DOESN'T HELP MY SITUATION.
Posted at 8:46PM on Aug 12th 2007 by DEBBIE
23. St. Johns Wort worked form me but
now I can't find anyone who carries
it in my area.
Posted at 8:47PM on Aug 12th 2007 by notpc4u
24. Carol... please accept my condolences on your losses. I can't imagine losing my husband and parents around the same time. How horrible for you. You might look into some grief counseling to help you through this unbelievably difficult time in your life.
There is a difference between situational depression that is caused by life circumstances, depression that is caused by an organic chemical imbalance, and depression that is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. People who have an organic chemical imbalance need medication to support the right level of neurotransmitters that affect mood, motivation, memory, and other things that are affected by depression. (Remember that depression is not just sadness.) Sometimes we can be predisposed to depression and have it come on as a result of a life event or poor lifestyle choices. I believe that I fall into that category. I am currently weaning myself from antidepressants because, although they do help to stabalize my affective state, they make me so tired and spaced out that I cannot function. This has happened with Effexor XR and Lexapro. On the other hand, Wellbutrin made me feel like I was about to jump through my skin, and it gave me strange muscle spasms and visualizations.
I'm going to try to get daily exercise and eat a healthier diet that is rich in vegetables and fruits. I have no evidence that this works, but looking back on my life, I have been happiest when I have been active and healthy. I currently get no exercise and live on fatty, processed foods. Hopefully an extreme change in lifestyle will help me to feel more like myself.
Good luck to everybody in finding their own best solution. It truly is an individual choice that each person must make, based upon their own circumstances. I would never judge someone for choosing medication, therapy, vitamins, exercise, or whatever works for them!!!
Posted at 8:47PM on Aug 12th 2007 by Sarah
25. Dear Dona. Valium is not an antidepressant. It is a depressant. It will not lift your mood. Rather, it will sedate you into not caring about your life circumstances.
Posted at 8:47PM on Aug 12th 2007 by Sarah
26. I also have had depression through out my life and now @ the age 49 it has hit like a hurricane. Chemical changes I do believe have alot to do with the symptoms on a daily basis. Every day I struggle, waiting for the night to come, Lexapro does help along with counseling...childhood experiences are a big part of my troubles.
Posted at 8:48PM on Aug 12th 2007 by donna
27. Hello,
I have been fighting depression since I was 6 and 32 years later it was discovered that I did not have severe clinical depression but I was Bi-Polar. What a relief!! I saw a therapist & physicalogist and my medication is finally in balance. They many never know what truly causes depression but if medications help ease you, either temporary or life lasting treatment, at least you have the courage to know you have a problem and asked for help! Taking anti-depressant medications does not make you a drug addict (comment by tommy about) - no more than high blood pressure medicine, birth control, pills for diabetes, migranes, etc... They were created to help when you ask or can not do it on your own.
Posted at 8:48PM on Aug 12th 2007 by Mary Hughes
28. Meds vs holistic: there is no black and white, one answer for everyone. I've been struggling with depression on and off all my life. I'm in my 40's. The last time, it was determined that I am unable to effectively absorb B12 (vitamin) and that caused my depression. But that was not the only source of my depression. There was sexual assault, physical abuse and other reasons. I never dealt with any of it, and it had to surface as depression. So, don't poo-poo the vitamin theory. It's just as real as any other real source of depression. There isn't just one. Whatever it is, get help. Give it a fair chance to work and if it doesn't, tell your doctor, your therapist, and move on to another way of dealing with it. Good luck!
Posted at 8:49PM on Aug 12th 2007 by Zoe
29. I have taken amitryptiline for IBS since 1983. I have taken Wellbutrin and Buspar for anxiety and depression since 1994.I also took Diovan for hypertension. I came upon a website called doctoryourself.com about 6 weeks ago. I have taken no medicine for 6 weeks and feel the best I have since probably since birth. I take 5mg NADH and 500mg niacin daily; I have taken several other vitamins for years, but those two are the only additions along with celery extract for hypertension. Investigate the website; I never would have believed freedom from the medicines was possible
Posted at 8:54PM on Aug 12th 2007 by bob
30. Spavelous....How about you don't use this as advertising for your website??? Vitamins and holistic medicine DO NOT fix everything.
Posted at 8:56PM on Aug 12th 2007 by Jen
31. To the person who extolled limictal: this can be used as an adjunct to anti-depressants but is quite dangerous. 10% of the test populations receiving limictal experienced skin rashes, and the rashs proved fatal for 10% of that number. Limictal is a last resort, to be sued with extreme caution.
Posted at 8:58PM on Aug 12th 2007 by cresence
32. I don't know whether drugs are the answer for everyone or not, but they pulled me out of it and like others have said, if you haven't been through it, you haven't got a clue. Maybe with me it is something in my life that brings it on, but if so, I don't know what it is; so drugs work for me. If Wellbutrin or Paxil or Prozac or any of the others work, then go for it. I may not have been suicidal, but I sure as heck found out how others can get to that point. Pop all the B-Complex you want and chant all day long or go cleanse your liver...good for you if any of that works. As for me, thank God for my doctor and Eli Lilly and the rest of the drug companies.
Posted at 8:58PM on Aug 12th 2007 by pmastery
33. 30% of the people diagnosed with major depression cannot be effectively treated with drugs (e.g., SSRI's, tricyclics, etc.). Exercise helps but is a limited remedy. Vitamins and herbal remedies have to be regarded with suspicion although St. John's Wort and myo-inositol may be helpful for some. After this, the only FDA-approved treatments are electro-convulsive treatment and vagus nerve stimulation. Other forms of treatment are in the experimental stage. Unfortunately, I am one of those who are "treat-resistant": I have a genetic predisposition to depression, and no amount of medication, exercise, vitamins, and carping about how I should change situations in my life is going to help. Frankly, I now just sit at home, watch TV, and wait to die. For that is the lot left to many of us.
Posted at 8:58PM on Aug 12th 2007 by cresence
34. There is not just one cure for everyone that is depressed. Each one of us is different and how we deal with our depression is also different. For some it could be a matter of going to a spa and using vitamins, althought, I personally don't see how that would work for me. I deal with my level of depression, going to counselling, and taking medication as prescibed. I get out of the house, when I would prefer to stay in, I force myself to do things like write this comment, I exercise, when I find no joy in it, but know that it is the thing to do. I hope to one day over come this darkness that I live in, before it over shadows me. People who don't live with depression, always seems to know whats best. They make comments to me all the time about what I should be doing and what I have going for me if I would just over come this depression. Some come up with their great solutions but they never really understand why those solutions will not work unless the person who is sick, is somewhere in their mind where they can accept that particular solution. I have been in group situations where one of the patients come in and said that he was leaving to go experience being a budda for 6 months. When he came back from that experience he was much better and slowing getting off medication. So, it's like I have said everyone is different. Some of us luck out and find something that will help to take away the darkness and some of us continue to go to counselling and take our medication so that we may continue to walk around this earth.
Posted at 8:59PM on Aug 12th 2007 by sis1oftwo
35. My son suffered from depression. He was on so many different things that no one could keep track of them, not even him. He killed himself when he was thrity eight years old. I think he was on so much medicene that it hurt him rather then helped him. Mental illness of any kind is a terrible thing to deal with and I don't think doctors always have all the answers. Maybe less pills and more changing ones behavior and also diet may be more effective. I don't know what the answer is but that is what I think.
Posted at 8:59PM on Aug 12th 2007 by Casey
36. To all the people who think that vitamins are the answer, thank god you have never known true clinical depression. You wouldn't tell someone with diabetes to do yoga or think positively - diabetes is an imbalance in the body, just as depression is an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. If we took an everage person's brain and altered the chemical balance of serotonin,etc. they would suffer from depression, too. We just happened to be dealt a bad hand in the brain chemical department. Simple as that.
Posted at 9:00PM on Aug 12th 2007 by cece
37. i have bipolar1/ take 1650 ml lithium a day and 4 10 mg valliums
Posted at 9:02PM on Aug 12th 2007 by highspade
38. Although medications have their place in treating depression, there is a much deeper need in people's lives for God. People deny that need and try to fill that emptiness with whatever makes them feel better. Remember, God loves you. God does not make junk and everyone is special in their own way.
Posted at 9:02PM on Aug 12th 2007 by Steve
39. I have been suffering from depressation for years.And no help.I have a bad heart,high blood pressure.2 brain anyourismes .I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong.I take alot of meds.And I don.t want to add more.I have been taking zoloft for years.Just a waste of money
Posted at 9:02PM on Aug 12th 2007 by penny
40. I started having panic attacks and severe depression in my early twenties. It took several doctors and medications before finding out I was Bipolar. I am now thirty-two and have found the right combination for me, Prozac and Trileptal. Without it I know I would not be here. Its not perfect but it helps me keep going. Different drugs affect everybody different. I had a lot of people suggest their meds they were using but didn't work for me. Work with your Dr. to find the right one or combination for you.
Posted at 9:04PM on Aug 12th 2007 by Crystal