Types of medicine
What Is an Antidepressant? What Its Warnings Mean
Antidepressant · say it: AN-tee-dee-PRESS-untAlso written: antidepressants, antidepressant medicine
Short answer
An antidepressant is a medicine used to treat depression, and often anxiety, pain and other conditions, by acting on chemical messengers in the brain.
What it means
Antidepressants are a group of medicines that act on brain chemical messengers such as serotonin and noradrenaline. They are used for depression, and many are also used for anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, nerve pain, sleep problems or migraine prevention. Main types include SSRIs, SNRIs, tricyclics and MAOIs. They usually take a few weeks to have their full effect.
Antidepressant labels carry a boxed warning about suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, teenagers and young adults, especially early in treatment or after a dose change. They also warn about serotonin syndrome when combined with other serotonin medicines, about mania in people with bipolar disorder, and about discontinuation symptoms if stopped suddenly. If you have thoughts of harming yourself, seek help right away.
Being prescribed an antidepressant does not always mean you have depression; many are used for other conditions at different doses.
Where you may see it
- Boxed warning at the top of antidepressant prescribing information
- Medication guides handed out with antidepressant prescriptions
- Medication lists in discharge summaries
📄 How it looks on a report
Antidepressants increased the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in pediatric and young adult patients in short-term studies.
🙅 What it does not mean
- Taking an antidepressant does not mean you are 'weak' or will need it forever.
- They are not addictive in the way opioids can be, but stopping suddenly can cause discontinuation symptoms.
- Feeling no change in the first days does not mean it is not working.
🗒️ Questions to ask your doctor
💊 Medicines whose labels mention “Antidepressant”
Plain-English explanations of each medicine, from its official FDA label.
- Amitriptyline
An antidepressant of the tricyclic type
- Aripiprazole
an atypical antipsychotic medicine
- Artemether and Lumefantrine
an antimalarial medicine, which is a fixed combination of two blood-stage antimalarial ingredients (artemether, an artemisinin derivative, and lumefantrine)
- Bupropion Hydrochloride
an aminoketone antidepressant, a type of medicine used to treat depression
- Carbamazepine
a mood stabilizer, and an anticonvulsant (seizure) medicine, according to the label
- Ciprofloxacin
a fluoroquinolone antibacterial medicine
- Citalopram
a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), a type of antidepressant medicine
- Duloxetine
A serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) type of antidepressant medicine
- Escitalopram
a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), a type of antidepressant
- Fluoxetine
a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), a type of antidepressant medicine
🔗 Read more from trusted sources
- “Antidepressant” on MedlinePlus ↗
US National Library of Medicine
- NCI Dictionary definition ↗
US National Cancer Institute: “antidepressant”
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General information about a medical word, not advice about your own results. Ask the clinician who ordered the test what it means for you.