The psychiatrist, Yevhen Skrypnyk, clarifies information concerning antidepressants, resolving misconceptions about dependency and adverse reactions. These pharmaceuticals demonstrate efficacy for numerous ailments, extending beyond solely depression, and do not cause addiction.
In Ukraine, antidepressants are still subject to apprehension and biases, despite a rapid rise in demand for these pharmaceuticals over the previous year. Yevhen Skrypnyk, a psychiatrist, elaborated to a journalist from UNN concerning the nature of antidepressants, their impact on individuals, and the inaccuracies surrounding these medications.
While antidepressants are frequently linked solely to depression, their practical applications are considerably more diverse. According to the physician, these medications now feature in global therapeutic strategies for conditions like anxiety disorders, PTSD, OCD, disrupted sleep patterns, and psychosomatic illnesses. Consequently, psychiatrists are prescribing them with greater frequency.
Antidepressants encompass drugs administered not just in the therapy of depression. They see usage for anxious states, obsessive-compulsive conditions, post-traumatic tension, sleep disturbances, in conjunction with psychosomatic problems, namely irritable bowel condition, hyperactive bladder, the perception of “tightness within the throat”
– the psychiatrist clarifies.
Echoing the evolution of numerous drugs, the genesis of antidepressants was inadvertent. The inaugural medications weren’t originally conceived for psychiatric purposes, but rather for alternative therapeutic objectives. As time passed, physicians took note of an unanticipated outcome and commenced pioneering a novel treatment pathway.
The initial antidepressants made their entrance in the 1960s, following the discovery that a medication intended to address tuberculosis unexpectedly elevated the moods of patients. Consequently, the advancement of antidepressants commenced. Imipramine surfaced as the first, succeeded by amitriptyline, which persists as a “gold standard” attributed to its potent action
– Yevhen Skrypnyk detailed.
While efficacious, earlier tricyclic antidepressants brought about severe detrimental effects. They played a role in originating the fallacy of a “zombified state” ensuing the ingestion of these medications. Contemporary psychiatric practice has progressively distanced itself from this methodology.
Amitriptyline yields considerable effectiveness, while yielding a spectrum of adverse reactions, spanning drowsiness, giddiness, rapid heartbeats, and bowel irregularity. It serves as the genesis for the misunderstanding associating antidepressants with the “zombie” effect. Contemporary medications, for instance sertraline, escitalopram, fluoxetine, circumvent such consequences
– the physician emphasizes.
Another prevailing apprehension points to the possibility of addiction through antidepressant utilization. As stipulated by a psychiatrist, this assertion is detached from fact and lacks substantiation through scholarly inquiry.
Antidepressants are not prone to inducing dependency, whether they are old or contemporary. They are lacking in euphoria, devoid of cravings. There exists only a withdrawal phase equivalent to a multitude of other medications. If the drug is step by step discontinued, there are no difficulties
– Yevhen Skrypnyk clarified.
On the other hand, genuine dependency may stem from favored “heart tonics,” regarded harmless among numerous Ukrainians, Yevhen Skrypnyk asserts. These, not antidepressants, harbor a credible hazard.
Corvalol, Barboval, Valocordin formulations encompass phenobarbital, a barbiturate liable to induce dependency. Throughout numerous nations, these drugs undergo prohibition or stringent monitoring; however, within our domain, individuals maintain trepidation toward antidepressants, while serenely utilizing barbiturates
– the psychiatrist conveyed.
Adding to the intrigue, antidepressants refrain from “boosting spirits” instantly and do not function as stimulants, in light of their activity being intrinsically linked with intricate neurological mechanisms, resulting in a time-delayed effect.
Antidepressants do not promptly instill happiness. They regulate the interchange of neurotransmitters, namely serotonin, noradrenaline, dopamine. Via a network of mechanisms, anxiousness diminishes, and the state steadily ameliorates. The initial change becomes evident only following an interval spanning from 2 to 6 weeks
– the doctor explains.
As Yevhen Skrypnyk explains, the ailment could possibly intensify initially throughout treatment, and that falls within the normal range. Nonetheless, some sufferers make a wrong choice and stop therapy at this juncture.
The preliminary weeks have the possibility of initiating nausea, sleep deprivation, heightened nervousness, cephalalgia. These constitute predictable adverse effects that progressively recede. The predicament comes about when patients cease taking the medicine soon after a span of a day or two by reason of these undesirable results, and consequently make the claim that antidepressants have no effect.
– says the psychiatrist.
Antidepressants are administered for explicit health conditions. According to the psychiatrist, mild depression may be addressed merely through psychotherapy, however, medication is essential in much more challenging circumstances.
Antidepressants are a must for average and serious depression. It isn’t a question of “is it my desire or not”, however a question of treating the disorder.
– emphasizes Yevhen Skrypnyk.
Incidentally, the demand for antidepressants in Ukraine went up by 72% during 2023-2025. This is apparent from data originating from the Liki24 service, Forbes records. The psychiatrist explains this advancement in sales by an alteration in the methodology to the treatment of mental illnesses in Ukraine and internationally.
People have started, once and for all, treating anxiety disorders not using valerian and nootropics, but using drugs that are included in international protocols. More antidepressants are being bought, and fewer nootropics, on the contrary. This is a good sign
– the psychiatrist explained.
Moreover, amid the most typical fallacies is the idea that antidepressants need to be ingested throughout your lifetime in the event that you commence treatment, but this is not the situation, according to the physician. Concurrently, treatment should certainly be extended in duration.
Subsequent to improvement, antidepressants have to be consumed for approximately a year. Should you quit taking them sooner, the symptoms will come back. This doesn’t imply that the person is “hooked”, it indicates that the treatment was terminated prematurely
– says the doctor.
One more misconception is that these drugs are only necessary for the “weak” or those who “weren’t able to manage independently.” Doctors view this method to be specifically damaging.
Mental disorders are not about weakness. They are about brain biochemistry, genetics, and external stressors, and antidepressants are the same medications as insulin for diabetes or drugs for hypertension.
– emphasizes Yevhen Skrypnyk.
Thus, antidepressants are not a “magic pill” and do not take the place of working on yourself. Yet in a variety of situations they come to be a needed stage of treatment, devoid of which psychotherapy and adjustments in lifestyle simply do not work. At the present time, the spike in the use of antidepressants is not an alarming signal, but a sign that society is slowly getting rid of stigma and self-medication. People are progressively much less attempting to “withstand” or suppress symptoms with dubious sedatives and are progressively relying on specialists.
WARNING! The material is for informational purposes only. If you are concerned about health problems, please consult a doctor.