Can antidepressants and anxiolytics be combined?

Have you been prescribed antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications to treat depression? Do you want to know if there is any risk when consuming these two drugs together? Resolve the doubts in the following text.

Many patients wonder if it is safe to combine antidepressants and anxiolytics.. The answer is “yes”, under certain conditions. In fact, this is a common strategy for treating depression. This psychopharmacological approach is common when the person also shows comorbidity associated with anxiety.

Patients with lack of energy, alterations in appetite, hopelessness and anxious thoughts benefit significantly from this fusion. However, it is important to note that the best results always appear when psychological therapy is combined with the use of such medications. Go deeper into this topic.

Depression is often accompanied by states of anxiety, irritability and insomnia.

How can antidepressants and anxiolytics help you?

The use of antidepressants and anxiolytics is a recurrent approach for the treatment of depression.. Research such as that developed in the psychiatry department of the Hôpital St-Antoine in Paris highlights this approach. Anxiety frequently coexists with the depressive disorder itself and, therefore, doctors include the prescription of an anxiolytic.

What is the reason for this technique? It is pertinent to start with a brief analysis of these two drugs that, right now, are the most prescribed in the world. These are safe formulas, endorsed by medical organizations and that, with correct administration, do not generate addiction; In addition, its side effects are increasingly manageable.

Antidepressants

Antidepressants are prescribed to treat mood disorders (anxiety and depression) and to address chronic pain. Currently, the most ordered are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as fluoxetine and sertraline.

Read Also: Why do Japanese children obey and don't throw tantrums?

It should be noted that they take several weeks to take effect and that it is advisable to take them for a limited time. Likewise, they cannot be stopped overnight; withdrawal of this drug should be gradual. On the other hand, not everyone benefits from them and there is always a small percentage of the population that needs other resources.

Anxiolytics

Anxiolytics treat anxiety disorders and problems falling asleep. They influence the central nervous system, specifically, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), generating an inhibitory action: they reduce the activity of the central nervous system and produce a feeling of calm and relaxation.

This results in a sedative and anticonvulsant effect. The most commonly used are benzodiazepines, such as diazepam, lorazepam or alprazolam.

These drugs are effective at reducing anxiety symptoms and helping you sleep, but they can have side effects, such as drowsiness, dizziness, confusion, and short-term memory problems. Because they are medications that can cause dependence, they should be used with caution and under supervision.

Major depression is very often treated by combining antidepressant drugs and benzodiazepines.

Combining antidepressants and anxiolytics: purpose, effectiveness and associated effects

The coexistence of depression with anxiety disorders is common and, therefore, it is possible to combine antidepressants and anxiolytics. It is a safe experience and recommended among the medical community. In recent years, cases of patients showing major depression with anxiety symptoms have increased considerably.

Researchers from Emory University in the United States highlight that these two conditions often appear as subsyndromal symptoms. That is, it may be the case that a patient does not meet 100% of all the criteria to be able to make a clear diagnosis of depression and/or anxiety. What appears, therefore, is a combination of both clinical pictures.

Read Also: Aboulomania: pathological indecision

Is this treatment effective?

Magazine Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience published a study in 2004 on the concomitant use of both drugs. For a start, Combining antidepressants and anxiolytics is safe and useful in the first weeks of treatment, as they achieve rapid improvement. If the patient also carries out adequate psychological therapy, the effects will be more positive and relapses will be avoided.

It is known that anxiolytics or benzodiazepines increase the effect of the antidepressants themselves, but, after a few weeks, it is advisable to gradually withdraw the former. Long-term or permanent treatments of these two pharmacological options are something that, as far as possible, is best avoided.

The combination of antidepressants and benzodiazepines is more effective than applying antidepressants alone, especially for treating major depression.

What are the associated side effects?

Combining antidepressants and anxiolytics occasionally and for one, four or six months has mild side effects. and, generally, tolerable. They are the following:

Dizziness. Tiredness. Drowsiness. Constipation. Possible nausea. Changes in appetite. Feeling of dry mouth. Slows down your reaction times. Possible decrease in sexual desire.

However, If the consumption of these psychotropic drugs is prolonged, other slightly more severe symptomatic symptoms may appear.. On average, they manifest themselves in the following way:

Chronic fatigue. Weight gain. Sexual problems. Sleep disorders. Digestive problems. Alterations in menstruation. Feeling of dependence on these drugs. Possible cardiac alterations, such as tachycardia. Changes in mood and greater tendency towards depression. Cognitive difficulties such as , for example, having problems focusing attention, small memory lapses, etc.

The best strategy to address depression is psychological therapy. Drugs can help, but they do not solve the problem.

Read Also: Osho's 12 best phrases to reflect on

Warnings when taking antidepressants and anxiolytics together

Combining antidepressants and anxiolytics is beneficial because benzodiazepines enhance the effect of drugs such as fluoxetine or sertraline. This clinical strategy is safe and useful. However, Psychotropic drugs, although they help, do not by themselves end the origin of the clinical picture.; That is, they do not return autonomy to the patient permanently.

Psychological therapy is the best mechanism to address a depressive disorder with anxiety comorbidities. The cognitive-behavioral approach or acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is helpful. In these cases, mixing it with drugs – if the doctor considers it so – would be very effective.

Finally, it is only worth noting the need to always follow the advice of specialists while taking anxiolytics and antidepressants. Never leave them overnight and, if you have any unexpected effects, do not hesitate to consult your doctor. They can always prescribe other alternatives.