Antidepressants are powerful drugs and medications commonly used to treat mental and psychological disorders. These medications are frequently used to “cure” various mood disorders, some of which are major depressions, anxiety disorders and dysthymia. There are many companies that manufacture antidepressants for each specific condition. There is no definite criterion (only theories) for determining the best antidepressants. Typically doctors use trial and error to figure out how to best treat a patient’s specific disorder. Here are some of the best antidepressants on the market today:
Top Depressants in the Market
Citalopram was first manufactured in 1989 by a pharmaceutical company called the Lundbeck. Its medical use is to treat symptoms of several major depressions. However, off-label the drug is used to treat disorders like panic disorders, OCD, anxiety, ADHD and body dysmorphic disorder. Aside from this Citalopram can reduce symptoms of diabetic neuropathey and even premature ejaculation.
Fluoxetine is another top selling antidepressant in the United States. Sold as Prozac, Fontex and Sarafem, this is manufacted by Eli Lilly and Company. It is often combined with olanzapine to form symbyax. It is used to treat major depressions as well as premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
Desvenlafaxine is an antidepressant originally made by Pfizer but now marketed and developed by Wyeth and is used as the first treatment for menopause. This drug is a synthetic form of another metabolite Venlafaxine and is marketed as Effexor and Efexor. The brand name for this drug is Pistiq and is approved for use in the United States.
Another popular depressant in the market today is Amitriptyline. This is sold in the brands such as Elavil, Laroxyl, Tryptizol and among others. One of the oldest drugs being a tricyclic antidepressant, this drug is known to treat depressions and other newer classes of SSRIs. Other symptoms that this drug cures include tension headaches, anxiety attacks, migraines, and even schizophrenic symptoms.
Other types of antidepressant drugs are called augmenter drugs. These type of drugs are designed to enhance other drugs or basically works best when combined with other drugs. One of these augmenter drugs is Buspirone which is manufactured and distributed by Bristol-Myers Squibb in the United States. Buspirone is another psychorative drug used as an anxiolytic or a cure for common anxiety disorder.
Bupropion is another antidepressant drug that is marketed as Aplenzin, Wellbutrin, Voxra and many others. This drug was originally researched for antidepressant properties but later was found out to have smoking cessation properties. In the year 2007, this drug had twenty million subscriptions in retail making it the fourth-most prescribed antidepressant in the whole United States. Bupropion is known to be an effective drug on its own however it can be used as an add-on mechanism with other drugs.
It should be noted that these antidepressants are powerful drugs that originally to cure specific diseases but when not used properly they can have very dangerous side-effects. As mentioned before, there are no fixed criterions on how the good the drug is. The important thing is how effective the drug is to treat the specific symptom the drug is used for.
