The different side effects of antidepressant drugs

Antidepressant drugs fall under different categories and most of them are very critical drug as their therapeutic dose is very close to the lethal dose so, they should be handled with extra care and should be only prescribed by certified psychiatric. Dose regulation should be done periodically to determine the body response of the patient to the antidepressant drugs as some of them have a cumulative effect and may develop toxicity if they are taken in extra doses. The safest step that you can do is to tell your doctor about your full medical history, if you were visiting another doctor then you should tell the new one to pull your medical file and find out full details about your case before prescribing any new medications.

Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors or MAOIs are one of the oldest groups of antidepressants; they are not used extensively nowadays because they could be dangerous if eaten with food containing Tyrosine amino acid. If your doctor prescribed you one of the drugs that belong to this group, make sure to get the list of the foods that you should avoid while on this medication.

Tricyclic antidepressants are not suitable for those who are suffering from heart diseases as they may cause accelerated heart beats, drowsiness, fainting, decreases blood pressure as well as some other common side effects like dry mouth, tremors in muscles, sleepiness and weight gain. In older male patients difficulty of urination is a common side effect and erectile dysfunction also was reported in a high percent of patients.

When it comes to newer types of antidepressants as SSRI and SNRI, you should know that the side effects are much less but they are still present. Every drug of these two groups has its own side effects and you can get the full list through reading the leaflet attached with the drug. Most of patients do not read the leaflet as it looks very boring, written in a very small font and contains a lot of expressions but it is very important to take a look at it so you can recognize the side effects if it happened to you. Some of these drugs have an effect on heart like Venlafaxine and patients who also suffer from heart problems should avoid such drug.

It is very important to know as much as you can about the antidepressant drug that your doctor prescribed. Do not hesitate to ask your doctor about the drug then take a look through the internet and discuss the information you have got with your doctor.