Zoloft vs Prozac
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- Опубликовано: 1 июл 2024
- Zoloft, Prozac, Celexa, Paxil, Lexapro and are all SSRI medication but you may prefer one vs the other and have a different reaction to each. This video explains what to expect and how to make a decision that helps you get better!
The most common form of antidepressant is known as an SSRI - Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor - if you want to know how this works I have a whole other video about that - right here! Depending on your source between 1 in 6 and 1 in 10 of the population are currently prescribed antidepressant and the vast majority of these will take an SSRI.
Video Contents:
00:00 - Introduction to video
01:00 - Different types of antidepressants - how do they work?
02:08 - What are the key differences between different antidepressants?
02:22 - The Half life of different antidepressant SSRIs
04:06 - Methods of consumption
05:07 - Dietary considerations about antidepressants
05:50 - Different genetic response to antidepressants
07:28 - How long will the antidepressants take to start working?
07:54 - Summary - how to choose the right antidepressant
SSRIs are all great at combating many mental health issues such as depression, general anxiety, PTSD, OCD etc. Which ever you take has the potential to significantly help your mental state.
The names listed at the start - Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa and so on are all SSRI medication so whilst they perform the same role in your body your individual reaction to different meds can be varied. So what are the differences?
The Key Differences
1. Half Life
2. Method of consumption
3. Dietary Considerations
4. Your own bodies reaction
Half Life
The Amount of time it takes for the amount of medication in the body to halve. Looking at this chart you can see this ranges considerably with SSRI medication. A shorter Half Life can mean that withdrawal is more of a shock to the system as the chemical change is more rapid; so whilst a longer half life med isn’t always the best choice it is useful knowledge if you decide to reduce your dosage and find withdrawal difficult. Moving to another SSRI with a longer half life can help this process.
A longer half life can also lead to less issues if you accidentally miss a dose. Your body won’t panic that you’ve gone ‘cold turkey’ quite as quickly.
Citalopram (Celexa) - 36 Hour Half Life
Escitalopram (Lexapro) - 30 Hour Half Life
Fluoxetine (Prozac) - 144 Hour Half Life
Paroxetine (Paxil, Pexeva) - 24 Hour Half Life
Sertraline (Zoloft, Lustral) - 36 Hour Half Life
Method of consumption
(e.g. Fluoxetine can be taken in liquid form that you simply drop into your mouth.)
People have preferences over how they take the meds. Some people hate swallowing pills and prefer something that dissolves in a glass of water. Some people prefer capsules to tablets. Each SSRI is available in different forms and if this element is an important part of you committing to taking it then speak with your GP. Likewise if you find yourself struggling with the method of consumption - raise it during your next medication review.
Dietary Considerations
(e.g Citlolapram contains lactose, fluoxetine capsules contains gelatine)
If you are lactose intolerant or vegan there might be dietary considerations to bear in mind.
Your Bodies Reaction
This is personal to you and difficult to predict. The Mayo Clinic recognises that your inherited traits i.e. your genetic makeup, play a role in determining how well your body reacts to different medication. You may have severe side effects with Prozac and find that Zoloft is an easier experience. If we understand that genetics plays a role here and you have close relatives who have taken antidepressants then asking about their experiences might help you and your GP find the right medication for you as your response may well be similar.
Your body will give you feedback about how things are going and it is up to you how you respond but consider the following:
ALL SSRIs are likely to cause some unpleasant side effects, particularly in the first couple of weeks.
It can take about 6 weeks before your body begins to feel the positive side effect.
If you feel confused about which antidepressant is right for you - you are not alone!
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I started on sertraline 2 weeks ago and it’s honestly been a life saver, I wish I had tried this years ago. My depression has completely gone and anxiety is still there but much more manageable. Side effects have definitely started to lessen too now.
So good to hear Becca! I hope things continue to be positive for you. 👏
@@AHappyChange thank you so much and thank you for your informative videos on anti depressants, they really helped me take that step to recovery that I’d been avoiding for years
How many mg?
Amazing video!!! Keep making more please.
So glad I found this channel and woohoo to 7k subs
Thanks Steph! How are things going for you?
Thank you f9r your videos :) did you feel drowsy and fatigued the first few weeks?
Thank you
Thank you for your videos. Did you find it was hard to come off of zoloft? I am to start lexapro and im really scared of side effects. This is the first mednive taken. I had a genetic test done to see which meds would work for me
Not particularly difficult. More psychological than physical at least as I worried I would crumble without them. Doing ok so far! When are you starting yours?
@@AHappyChange tonight. I'm so scared because I'm sensitive to medication in general but my anxiety is so physical that its running my life
I’ve been taking sertraline for the last one and a half years, and I watched your video on taking antidepressants and drinking alcohol. Since I started taking medications I reduced the amount of alcohol I consume but I’ve been wondering if I plan on drinking should I skip the medication?
Hey! No don’t skip it! Keep taking as usual even if you have a drink
@@AHappyChange ok thank you so much for responding! I was always skipping the medication when I was about to drink, at least now I know I was wrong
I started Lexapro a week ago and it's sent my anxiety into overdrive. Today (day 8) was the worst day. I'm really hoping it lets up soon.
How are you now? I start in 2 days!
@@timelycalmly1906 how are you both now?
how about now?
Hi i was on prozac for 6yrs and it worked fine untill it stopped working the trigger for my depression was a pressure on the bridge of my nose somi was then put on cltrapram and that worked for a year then got the same pressure on bridge of nose not sinus related but told it was anxierty related i have now been switched to zoloft stopping citrapram and starting zoloft the next day 50mg as they are from the same family no real side effects apart from sickness and feeling tired i am now on week 3 had good days and bad still feeling low and not much motivation but still functioning but not enjoying it got appointment tomorrow to give dr update on week 3 has anybody else taken zoloft i know they say it takes 4 to 6 weeks but getting cofused if it is working or not ant advice
im a vegan, but honestly when it comes to meds i take whatever i need to, even if it has animal product in it. with other aspects im strictly vegan.
Sounds sensible and I think within a few years you won’t have to make the choice any more. I don’t see animal products being a big feature of newly developed medicine.
SSRI’s achieved notoriety years ago when it was discovered that frequently they seemed to help patient’s more than talking therapy. SSRIs were celebrated in Peter Kramer's contemporary classic Listening to Prozac. Kramer’s book was remarkably honest for its time. The book was a discursive memoir by a therapist who is forced to admit that many of his clients seemed rapidly to fare far better on a pill than on his industrial-strength regimen of caring talk-therapy.
Science and medicine have advanced to where we now know that pharmacological intervention is initially necessary to boost the brain’s physical strength - much like a muscle. Once the “muscle of the brain” is strong enough for talk therapy, then - and only then - is the patient finally ready for Jungian Psychoanalysis and Behavioral Modification. So really, patients with tired brains are unable to profit from “physical therapy of the mind”, (talk therapy). First, the brain needs to acquire the strength necessary to undergo & profit from talk therapy.
The SSRIs all differ in their half-lives, chemical structure, and precise specificities. Their functional effects are broadly similar, though Prozac is the most activating, longest-lasting, least selective and most likely to provoke dose-related akathisia; paroxetine has anticholinergic and sedating antihistaminergic effects; fluvoxamine most commonly induces nausea and has the shortest half-life; and, citalopram is the most serotonin-selective (see citations 2 and 3 regarding heart warnings). The mood-brightening, resilience-enhancing and anti-anxiety properties of the SSRIs really can make a (very) modest percentage of the population feel “better”. Unpredictably, other users feel worse. As a class, SSRIs (mostly) don't have the physically unpleasant and cognitively debilitating anticholinergic effects of the tricyclics. SSRIs don't demand the dietary restrictions of the MAOIs. Their dependence potential and withdrawal reaction is usually milder than the powerful opioids.
Overall, SSRI’s operate by blasting more serotonin through the system than any other neurotransmitter. The result is imbalance, a flat affect (which typically diminishes motivation and causes power imbalances among the social fabric of the patient’s life), neuroleptic malignant syndrome, galactorrhea, sleep bruxism, decreased vigilance & tired brain , extremely serious extrapyramidal reactions, and the plethora of other side-effects for which SSRI’s are known (including homicide & suicide).
It is important to realize that the efficacy of SSRI’s is somewhat less than that of even the older conventional antidepressants including the tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs). Two common problems limit the usefulness of SSRIs, at least when taken on their own. The problems stem from the indirect inhibitory effect sometimes exerted by SSRI style drugs on dopamine function, a consequence of deliberate selective targeting of the serotonin system. SSRI’s have a very poor performance record in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) which is believed to be related to its inhibition of dopamine in the mesocorticolimbic system. It has been theorized that SSRI’s causing a psychiatric emergency - Restless Leg Syndrome - is precisely a result of SSRI inhibition of dopaminergic systems; a condition corrected by bupropion (Wellbutrin).
As we already elucidated in the Mechanisms of Depression section of this text, this is precisely what clinicians should not be doing: limiting dopaminergic function of the mesocorticolimbic systems. Rather we learned that effective treatment requires that we augment the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic systems! Part of the reason for the effectiveness of Nootropic class drugs is that they stimulate all the monoamines including norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine. Where many Nootropics enhances inter-hemisphere communication, SSRI’s such as fluoxetine (Prozac) impair it.
First, SSRIs can compromise libido and sexual performance, often times lingering long after cessation of the drug. SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction can still be a highly distressing phenomenon for older people too embarrassed to talk about it. These side-effects exacerbate one of the major signs of depression: loss of interest in sex and reduced libido. Proper treatment strategies must not induce sexual dysfunction. SSRI's have killed at least 800,000 patients in the USA since January 2000. If it weren’t for the Citizens United case (the USA Supreme Court case permitting Congressional bribery by Corporations), and the fact that heads of pharmaceutical industries sit on the board of the U.S. FDA, there is little doubt that SSRI’s would have been banned outright years ago.
Second, though a few subjects may feel mildly euphoric, in time most patients succumb to a flat affect and loss of motivation in their lives. What many treating physicians have observed is that the flattening of the patients affect by SSRI’s will more often than not, subtly change the "balance of power" in personal relationships - for good or ill. In some cases, SSRIs may even act as thymoanaesthetisers which diminish the intensity of felt emotion, both positive & negative, giving way to a “flat affect”. By contrast, a mood-brightening serotonin reuptake-enhancer like tianeptine (Stablon) may intensify positive emotion or sense of wellness & hope. Affective flattening may be welcome to someone in the pit of unmitigated clinical depression - But there are much better options light years ahead of SSRI’s. Succumbing to a flat affect is scarcely a life-enriching property.
A recent analysis cited the specific serotoninergic mechanisms associated with SSRI’s for making patients worse. The researchers also found tianeptine to resolve depression in these patients whose symptoms were worsened by SSRI’s.
By the late 1990’s, a backlash against SSRIs finally gathered enough pace to substantiate a flurry of lawsuits. In February 2008, a Public Library of Science meta-analysis of four commonly prescribed "second generation" antidepressants - using both published and withheld drug-company data - reported that SSRIs were scarcely more effective as antidepressants than placebos. The illustrious UK psychopharmacologist Professor David Healy delivers an even more damning verdict on contemporary psychiatry: "there is probably no other branch of medicine where the outcomes for a core disease are steadily worsening." [p. 95; Shock Therapy by Edward Shorter and David Healy (2007)] Today enormous class-action lawsuits are underway against the makers of SSRI’s - Soon to be filed against physicians prescribing them too!
In summary, the old concept of a single isolated monoamine system resulting in depression is no longer tenable. This concept was frightfully over simplistic. Today science has extensively mapped out how physical (organic/histological) alterations in a CNS ecosystem lead to multi-faceted chemical alterations and neurosis. Replacing a single monoamine creates a further imbalance to this delicate ecosystem along with extensive negative side-effects. On the other hand, proper treatment of this neurosis begins with regrowth of key structures of the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system.
In other words, the development and rationale for SSRI deployment were based upon a disproven myth. “The science backing selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, as an effective remedy for increasing serotonin levels in the brain and helping depression sufferers achieve mental ‘balance’ is entirely nonexistent,” warns a prominent psychiatrist in a new peer-reviewed editorial published in the esteemed British Medical Journal (BMJ)… “…the entire premise behind SSRIs and how they supposedly work is based on a myth.” Healy warns that the drugs, which have been linked to provoking both suicidal and homicidal tendencies in some users, have never been scientifically shown to balance anything in the brain. ”
i keep watching your videos and i want the happy change....but still i wait...my wife notices a slight difference...i dont ....i started(5weeks 1day)...my psychiatrist says its working as im sleeping well now ...also my other meds is slowing it down....this is one god dam wait
I gained benefits from Lexapro for four-month, but the side effects happened for a week. Therefore, I quitted Lexapro. Does this happen with any antidepressants? The side effects are pretty challenging to handle, so I am very scared that this might happen again. How do you manage side effects? Do you usually go with that and overcome them after a couple of weeks? I can't work when I have side effects.
Hi, it can be a tough few weeks to get through the side effects. I just accepted I was going to have a difficult 2 weeks and that the end result would be worth it (it was). Staying hydrated is really important, sleeping a lot. If possible talk to your employer and tell them; I did this and let them know I would struggle with certain aspects of my role for a few weeks and they really helped me.
@@AHappyChange I also got neck stiffness as a side effect and it affected my sleep. The side effect after 4-weeks was more intense than the side effects at the beginning. Anyways, I am going to try a different antidepressant.
@@DongPeterChungso that's why my neck is like that
Has Anyone got advice for social anxiety? Which med is best for it , I read Zoloft is prescribed for it ?
Paxil is the best SSRI for that but Sertraline is used too. But best of all is an MAOI like Nardil
I’ve been on 100 mg of Zoloft (Setraline) for over 8 months and it hasn’t done anything for me. I just switched to Prozac today so hoping for a better outcome. Trying to my research lol
Did u stop cold turkey cause it's not helping me either?
I was hoping it worked like lexapro but just bumped to 150 still doesn't yet
I had a really bad rash on Zoloft after 3 days so my doctor told me to stop taking it. Trying Prozac now, I'm a bit worried about getting more bad side effects because I just want something to work ASAP.
How are you on the Prozac?? I started it 1 week ago and I notice I'm feeling a little more on edge right now. Hoping it will go away soon!
@@mynameiswrm I’m off it now. Honestly I felt the same for like a month I think. Then I think things got better because I didn’t really have anxiety attacks or any mental breakdowns. I didn’t really notice a significant change in mood but it was definitely helping in the background. You sort of don’t notice it much until you look back on it.
Definitely stick with it but don’t expect miraculous sudden changes.
How you doing bro? Are you still on antidepressants?
Yo! I’ve just tapered off so currently living without. Had a few anxiety peaks but in a better place now and managing things better. Will see how the festive season goes as that can be a bit rough!! How are you
@@AHappyChange that's good to hear your doing good of your meds. I've been having ups and downs , but still off the meds, an not thinking on getting anymore. but... I have had some alcohols endeavours lately, and is like my body is rejecting it now. And yes festive season is upon us, well get through. Hope to see another video soon. Stay Good.
@@AHappyChange so what meds are you on right now and how many mgs?? Please I just want to know:)
LOOL THR ANXIETY HAT hahah. Thank you for the info!!
Any one else on 25 sertraline with diazepam ?
gimmie me ur diazepam
WeedStick yeah it's like gold dust sertraline sent me nuts back on venlafaxcine and still on diazepam but low dose crapping myself self coming off it .
@@sarahperks4581I'm on both and don't feel well
For Christ’s sake put the hands down
Never! 😂
You sad nothing...and you spend 10 minutes...you Have time..thats for sure🧐🤔😂
Maybe you didn’t listen? 🤷
@@AHappyChange Nah bro honestly you really havn't said anything usefull or informative apart from the half lives. I appriciate what your trying to do, but 'different SSRIs will effect you differently' doesn't tell you anything, where's the science.
I got lots of useful info from this video. Ta!
@@mysteryhombre81 yeah I think he only talked about the half life. Its very wasteful of our time
I learned a lot, you need to pay attention then