Over-the-counter antidepressants can be found in almost any pharmacy today. These are drugs that help a person relieve depression, anxiety, improve sleep. These drugs have a direct effect on the metabolism of mediators in the brain, which leads to this effect.
When are antidepressants necessary?
Many people in the modern world need antidepressants without a prescription. Depression is a serious enough disease that you should always reckon with. A person who is in this state loses the desire to enjoy life, inadequately perceives the surrounding reality, the usual rhythm of life, work or study gets lost, interaction with society is disrupted. Only a qualified psychotherapist can help in this situation. Therefore, if you feel that depression is falling on you, contact him for help as soon as possible to avoid the need for heavy medications.
It is worth noting that nowadays, not only psychiatrists use antidepressants without a prescription. They are also used by doctors of other specialties for the treatment of autonomic disorders, neurotic disorders, and pain relief. A specific drug is selected for each specific problem, because the number of antidepressants without a prescription is very large.
Symptoms of Depression
At the same time, it is worth recognizing that in our country, an incredulous and wary attitude towards psychiatry still remains. Often a person prefers not to contact a specialist, but to solve the problem on their own. For this, antidepressant drugs without prescriptions are suitable.
Symptoms of depression include protracted headaches that last from half an hour to several days. Moreover, they are often repeated, and their character is not pulsating, but squeezing. In this case, there is no direct correlation between great physical exertion, fatigue, and the patient's condition. If your head hurts 15 days a month or 180 days a year, then your doctors will assess your condition as serious.
Another sign of depression is panic attacks and unreasonable anxiety, which has no objective premises. And she comes at any time of the day, in the middle of the working day or late at night. Panic attacks can be accompanied by dry throat, nausea, tachycardia, excessive sweating, numbness of the limbs.
Persistent insomnia is another symptom of depression. Often, obsessive thoughts and ideas are superimposed on her, in which a person begins to feel emotionally exhausted and physically tired. In this case, the body can not relax, and the nervous system is at its limit.
Moreover, the above factors do not pass on their own. Individual manifestations, if they are not included in the system, can be ignored, but if they begin to repeat over and over again with alarming frequency, then the time has come for active measures. If you don’t want to see a doctor right away, start with non-prescription antidepressants. According to reviews, they can be very effective if the problem is not already running.
Where to begin?
Specialists advise starting with mild antidepressants with sedatives. They have a very mild effect, so they will not have a negative effect on the body.
These include Novopassit, Persen, Tenoten, as well as tinctures of motherwort and valerian. It is worth recognizing that the effect of them will only be at the initial stage of the disease. If the symptoms do not go away, but are repeated over and over again, then from drugs of herbal origin, it is necessary to move on to more effective medicines.
It is important not to confuse depression with disorders in other body systems. The fact is that these symptoms can also occur with disorders in the thyroid gland, angina pectoris, which is accompanied by panic attacks and unreasonable anxiety. If you have vertebral instability, then the blood flow may be squeezed, which will lead to severe headaches, numbness of all limbs and even loss of consciousness. In this case, antidepressants will not help, on the contrary, taking them can only aggravate your condition.
According to reviews, many are trying to cope with depression with the help of such antidepressants. This helps many, but for some people this treatment has no effect, because they need more serious help from specialists. Most still agree that before starting to use any drug, it is still better to take the time and consult a doctor who can give adequate advice.
Soft preparations
A list of the best non-prescription antidepressants opens up a category of substances that are serotonin reuptake inhibitors. If you compare them with old medicines, they are much easier to tolerate, the number of side effects is minimal, with an overdose there is no negative effect on the heart.
Among the best antidepressants without recipes of this type can be distinguished "Citalopram", "Fluoxetine", "Sertraline", "Paroxetine."
Prozac
One of the most popular non-prescription antidepressants is Prozac. Its action is based on fluoxetine, which works by reuptaking serotonin. This drug did not reveal secondary pharmacological properties, and the maximum concentration of the main substance in the blood plasma occurs only after 8 hours. Moreover, to obtain a therapeutic effect, it is necessary to take the drug for more than a month. Dosage - from 20 to 80 mg per day.
“Prozac” has a rather mild effect on the body, so it is often used to cope with depression, as well as with bulimia nervosa, mood swings, which in women can be caused by the menstrual cycle.
At the same time, experts insist that it is forbidden to take fluoxetine alone for people who are prone to thoughts of suicide, nor can it be combined with pimoside, thioridazine. It also has a negative effect on Prozac during pregnancy. Therefore, the expectant mother must definitely consult a doctor. "Prozac" is a very popular name for an over-the-counter antidepressant. Its price is about 500 rubles. Most of these medicines are in about the same price category.
Thorin is a non-prescription drug
The list of antidepressants without prescriptions also includes Torin. It acts on the human body through sertraline, having a minimal effect on dopamine and norepinephrine. In this regard, some experts attribute it to fairly strong drugs. If you take it for a long time, a negative effect on the proportion of adrenergic receptors may begin.
Note that the maximum concentration of "Thorin" begins 8 hours after ingestion, if food is present in the stomach, then this period can be significantly increased. This will decrease the activity of absorption. The daily dosage ranges from 50 to 200 mg.
Interestingly, the drug is prescribed not only for therapeutic purposes, but also as a prophylaxis. It is used for severe depression, post-traumatic stress state, panic attacks. Unlike many other non-prescription antidepressants, the names of which are given in this article, Thorin has been used in the treatment of children as young as six years old. It can not be combined only with tryptophan and MAO inhibitors.
Tsipralex
The drug "Cipralex" refers to a strong selective substances. By its safety and effectiveness, it can be correlated with sertraline. The active substance reaches its maximum concentration after about 4 hours after taking the medicine. At the same time, food does not have any effect on the digestibility of the drug by the body.
Partially, Cipralex is excreted from the body after about 30 hours. In this case, the daily dosage is from 10 to 20 mg. One course can last up to six months, if improvement does not occur earlier.
Significantly higher price of an antidepressant without a prescription "Cipralex". Packaging costs about one and a half thousand rubles. The medicine is effective in depression, but is not allowed for people with suicidal tendencies. At the same time, it is recommended to take it to patients suffering from agoraphobia, anxiety, panic attacks, and social phobia. It cannot be used together with MAO inhibitors, but can be combined with atypical and tetracyclic antidepressants. Side effects may occur, but, as a rule, they are eliminated within one to two weeks.
Paxil
The drug "Paxil" is based on the substance paroxetine. In its category, it is considered one of the most powerful. At the same time, its combination with short-acting sleeping pills is allowed. It is especially effective in panic attacks, depressive disorders, nightmares, phobias, obsessive thoughts, post-traumatic conditions. At the same time, “Paxil” does not cause addiction and attachment, but often quite a strong withdrawal syndrome occurs.
The drug reaches its maximum effect 5 hours after administration, and from 3 hours to three days is excreted. You need to start using it with a dosage of 20 mg.
It provokes adverse reactions of the digestive tract, which causes indigestion, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, severe pain. Like most antidepressants, it provokes an exacerbation of nervous disorders. The drug is strictly prohibited in late pregnancy.
Strong antidepressants
In pharmacies, you can find strong antidepressants without prescription. A list of the most common is given in this article. This is Asafen, Maprotilin, Amitriptyline.
The effect of their intake, as a rule, occurs in a couple of weeks, after which it is necessary to decide whether to continue the course of treatment or replace with weaker means. It is interesting that some of these drugs are necessarily dispensed only by prescription, but judging by the reviews of patients, in most pharmacies they can be purchased without any problems without a prescription.
Basically, these funds belong to the tricyclic series, therefore, they are recommended for those to whom inhibitors are contraindicated.
Asafen
The drug "Asafen" is based on the substance of the same name. It is considered one of the very first antidepressants that have an effective additional sedative effect. The maximum effect occurs approximately four hours after taking the tablets.
The daily dosage of Asafen varies from 25 to 50 mg. It is prescribed during the most severe depression, in some particularly difficult cases, it is combined with antipsychotics and tricyclic antidepressants. It is also used for anxiety and asthenoneurotic conditions, during severe alcoholic depression.
Amitriptyline
This drug has a sedative effect on the human body, therefore, helps to cope with various types of depression. It is most effective for panic attacks and anxiety when, due to health conditions, psychostimulant medications are not allowed.
This is one of the most reliable and proven means in psychiatry, which works on the basis of the substance of the same name. It helps with insomnia, internal stress, various phobias, the so-called pain syndromes.
The daily dosage is 50 mg.
Maprotiline
The drug "Maptilin" is a fairly strong antidepressant, which can be bought at a pharmacy without a prescription. The maximum concentration in the human body occurs after 8 hours, but with an increased dose it may occur earlier.
It is allowed to take from 25 to 75 mg per day. It is actively used to treat any depression, even menopause, as well as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, apathy, irritability.
To summarize, it should be noted that taking even the lightest antidepressants without consulting a doctor is risky enough. After all, drugs have a direct effect on the cardiovascular and nervous systems. Moreover, in a critical situation, they rarely help, as a rule, they are effective only as a result of taking a long course.