Antidepressant side effects (Q&A)
Many with migraine take antidepressants for migraine itself, and not for depression. Some take it for both, or for depression alone. Whatever category you are in, it can be a challenge to find your way through all the different types of medication, the differing opinions, the side effects, etc.
I thought a good starting point for conversation may be this question and answer time with Dr. Joseph Glenmullen from Harvard Medical School. The article is over 3 years old now, but many of the points brought up are still very current. The article mostly deals with those who have been diagnosed with depression, but the side effects can be similar no matter why you’re taking them.
Anything in the article that sounds familiar? What problems have you had with antidepressants? Or how have they helped?
An excerpt from the article:
If you tried to stop your antidepressant and couldn’t because of withdrawal symptoms, a good question to ask is: Are you caught in what I call the “antidepressant catch 22”? Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, depression, insomnia, and crying spells can mimic a patient’s original psychiatric condition. Countless patients have tried to lower the dose of their antidepressants and mistook these withdrawal symptoms for depressive relapse. Their doctors make the same mistake if they are not well informed about antidepressant withdrawal. When this happens, patients are needlessly put back on the drugs, often for years and despite severe side effects. In this “antidepressant catch-22,” patients are unaware that they were undergoing withdrawal rather than a return of their original psychiatric condition. The antidepressant catch-22 can be avoided by learning how to distinguish withdrawal symptoms from depressive relapse.