Lexapro - A Cure for Depression

Lexapro is an effective medication that helps deal with GAD and depression. It belongs to the family of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and is prescribed to millions of people each year. It improves the symptoms of anxiety and depression significantly for some patients. The generic name for Lexapro is Escitalopram, and is usually prescribed for treating bipolar disorder. Lexapro is the improved version of Celexa, and was approved by FDA in 2002 for treating depression.

The Details

The Lexapro drug is one that is mainly used to treat anxiety and depression. The Lexapro drug is incredibly powerful but given in the right doses it can help a person to calm down and to live a much more normal life. The Lexapro drug works because it boosts levels of serotonin in the body and the person feels much happier as a result.

This is a drug that is very closely related to the drug citalopram which is also quite popular. Often times there are people who are depressed but who are unable to take this drug and in that case the doctor would most likely prescribe them the Lexapro instead.

Anxiety and depression

Anxiety and depression usually are chronic medical conditions, and require continuous long-term treatment. Stopping any medication if the symptoms are currently under control involves the risk of relapse. It is important to continue with the medication as long as your doctor advices, else anxiety or depression may become worse. For people who had responded well to treatment of depression using Lexapro, continuing with the medication helped prevent the depression from returning. Lexapro may not improve the symptoms right away, and some patients take longer to respond to the medication. As with all SSRIs, Lexapro usually starts working after few days or over a month, but for some, it works faster. If you don’t see any positive results after six weeks, talk to your doctor. Take Lexapro just as prescribed, and never take it in larger amounts or for longer duration. For maximum benefits, your doctor may occasionally change the dose. Take each dose with a glass of plain water, and try to take the medication same time each day.

Lexapro can be taken daily, along with your other medication, however, inform your healthcare provider about it. Before taking Lexapro, inform your doctor if you suffer from mania, are breastfeeding, suffer from seizures, have suicidal thoughts, have kidney or liver disease or are pregnant.

Benefits and Side-effects of Lexapro

The brain chemistry of anxiety and depression is not yet fully understood. As per common understanding, the imbalance in the neurotransmitters of the brain causes these disorders. These chemicals in the brain allow communication of the nerve cells. Serotonin is one of these neurotransmitters, and imbalance in this can be major contributor in development of anxiety and disorder. One nerve cell releases serotonin and it then becomes accessible to the next. During this process, some of the released serotonin is reabsorbed by first nerve cell. SSRIs control this reabsorption, and hence make more serotonin available, and affect its balance in the brain.

Most of the side-effects of this medicine go away gradually as the body gets adjusted to the medicine. Some of the common side-effects include diarrhea, constipation, nausea, dizziness, increased sweating, dry mouth, gas in stomach, ejaculation delay, inability to maintain the erection, heartburn, stomach pain, impotence, loss in sexual desire, ability, performance or drive, insomnia, inability to sleep, sleepiness, loss of interest in sexual intercourse or unusual drowsiness.

Do not take Lexapro if you are already taking a type of antipsychotic medicine called Orap, taking Celexa, taking monoamine oxidase inhibitor such as Parnate or Nardil or are allergic to any components of Lexapro.

News and articles

5.1.2011 - Facts about Anxiety and Depression in Old People - First, depression and age are not mutually exclusive. In fact, there is a great similarity between younger age brackets (adolescents and young adults) and old adults.

15.1.2011- Failed attempts in weight loss go hand in hand with depression. This is the finding of several clinical studies regarding physical conditions which are related to depressive disorders. Most of the time, depressive behavior can be triggered by weight gain.

5.2.2011- Depression Statistics—A Growing Health Problem. In the United States, roughly 18.8 million American adults are affected by depressive disorders. This accounts to 9.5% of the total population of people with ages 18 and above.

5.3.2011 - Lexapro vs Paxil - They are newer alternatives for those who cannot tolerate the extra pyramidal symptoms present in the other variants. Examples of SSRIs are Lexapro and Paxil.