Taking Antidepressants: Your Comprehensive Guide to Starting, Staying On, and Safely Quitting

Antidepressants are the most commonly prescribed class of medications in this country - 190 million prescriptions per year have been written since 2005. Yet, consumers have few available resources to educate them in a fair, balanced fashion about starting and stopping antidepressants. People want to know if antidepressants are really safe, whether they are addictive, and how they may affect their personality. In this book, triple board-certified psychiatrist Dr. Michael Banov walks the reader through a personalized process to help them make the right choice about starting antidepressants, staying on antidepressants, and stopping antidepressants. He includes specific guidelines on how to safely reduce and ultimately stop taking antidepressants, if it is appropriate to do so. Readers will learn how antidepressant medications work, what they may experience while taking them, and will learn how to manage side effects or any residual or returning depression symptoms. Most books on depression take a biased view against antidepressant medication due to perceived dangers; this book finally provides a balanced, research-based resource for consumers who want the facts about taking antidepressants. The author holds readers' attention with case examples of characters they can relate to and interesting facts about depression, the brain, and mental health in general. The photos and illustrations in this book are black and white.