The usage of antidepressants has realized tremendous growth in the recent years, with most users found within the United States, which uses the drugs than any other country in the world. For this paper, it revolves around the benefits and limitations surrounding the use of antidepressants. On the benefits of antidepressants, the paper reveals them as facilitating in dealing with incidences of depression. The patients are able to attain emotional balance while minimizing incidences of restlessness, anxiety, as well as suicidal thoughts among other issues attributed to depression. Regarding the limitations of the antidepressants, they mostly revolve around various areas, which influence different areas of people’s lives. These comprise of physical symptoms, experiencing involuntary movements, reduced sexual desire, interest, satisfaction, and performance, conflict with other drugs, loss of drug effectiveness and emergence of discontinuation symptoms, premature delivery, and low birth weights, as well as the idea of self-destructive thoughts. The paper concludes by suggesting on the need for understanding the benefits and limitations of antidepressants together with the idea that distinct drugs work differently for other persons. Understanding this would assist persons in selecting the ideal antidepressant that would meet the requirements of a user.
Benefits and Limitations of Antidepressants
Starting the 1980s, most parts of the world, particularly America have realized the various benefits that antidepressants offer. The broadly prescribed antidepressants in the different parts of the world comprise of sertraline, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, escitalopram, and citalopram (Sonei, et al., 2017) . These medications have been perceived as astonishingly effective and safe. The various utilizations of antidepressants have risen in the recent years to comprise of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, as well as various other psychiatric situations (Gibson, Cartwright, & Read, 2014) . For the antidepressants, they assist in dealing with various forms of depression, which range from typical disappointment and unhappiness to unending depressive moods together with major depressive disorder (Read, Gibson, & Cartwright, 2016) . Since individuals respond to certain treatment forms differently, the persons who fail to realize improvements from the first medication might have a different one address their situation.
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In the present American society, estimates reveal that around 12 percent of adults use antidepressants as opposed to 6.5 percent during 1999. Furthermore, the number of persons consuming antidepressants during the longer term has doubled rising from 3 percent to over 6 percent (Gustavson, et al., 2016) . Americans are considered as more likely than other persons in the world are to take antidepressants mostly due to the growing incidences of depression diagnosis in the country. Furthermore, the manufacture, marketing, as well as introduction of new antidepressant medication have made it possible for the public to access them (Thacker, Fugh-Berman, & Hirsch, 2016) . Whereas the number of persons experiencing destructive repercussions from using antidepressants is small, it is crucial to note that all medical treatments feature certain risks. Recently, various side effects have resulted from using the drugs leading to increased attention directed toward antidepressants (Hadidi, Lindquist, Buckwalter, & Savik, 2015) . Drug manufacturers are even required to avail information concerning the severe dangers that the drugs pose, especially the ones related to suicide leading professionals and the public to assess the benefits that they offer (Wu & Davis-Ajami, 2014) . Thus, understanding the benefits and the limitations associated with antidepressants would allow patients and clinicians to determine whether to use them or not.
Benefits of Antidepressants
In the perspective of numerous researchers, they argue that whereas views prevail regarding the workability of antidepressants, they play a critical role when it comes to treating depression. Most physicians usually prescribe antidepressants with the goal of relieving symptoms in liner with minimizing their chances of coming back to affect the patients. They assist in allowing individuals establish emotional balance in line with minimizing symptoms, including anxiety, restlessness, as well as suicidal thoughts (Chen, et al., 2015) . While the antidepressants normally work to assist individuals deal with depression that they might be experiencing, they also help the patients to have better sleep. Unluckily, failure to have sufficient sleep might lead the state of the depression to worsen. Additionally, it is crucial to realize that antidepressants also work toward restoring the capacity of people to concentrate while at the same time improving their capacity to sleep, which might suffer in case they have depression (Choi, Lovett, Kang, Lee, & Choi, 2015) . In this manner, antidepressants play a critical role in terms of breaking the cycle for failure to eat well in line with lacking sleep, which might lead the depressing situation to worsen.
Various authors argue that some antidepressants are more effective that others when it comes to treating depression thereby ending certain doubt pertaining to the controversial drugs. It is essential to consider prescribing the millions of individuals from different parts of the world with prescription pills that work adequately for moderate as well as extreme depression. Only a limited number of persons receive the treatment in both developing and developed nations (Molyneaux, Howard, McGeown, Karia, & Trevillion, 2017) . Antidepressants are not conspiracies while they work in assisting patients to deal with diverse depressive situations. For depression, it is crucial to note that it is perceived as key contributor to the disability that the world witnesses today thereby posing intense challenges to humanity. It influences over 350 million persons worldwide while the cases increased by almost 20 percent between 2005 and 2015. For antidepressants, they serve as effective depression tools (Mitchell, Davies, Cassesse, & Curran, 2014) . Untreated depression poses problems owing to the burden it imposes to the society. In this sense, it is crucial to ensure that more than one million persons have access to effective depression treatment, while antidepressants or psychotherapy should serve as among them. The patients and doctors should make the choice of the treatment that they prefer (Correll, Detraux, De Lepeleire, & De Hert, 2015) . Nonetheless, the debate surrounding the issue of antidepressants has remained ideological. Certain patients and doctors doubt the workability of the drugs while arguing that drug firms might be interfering with the results of the trials while other patients argue that the drugs are meant for mental health situations.
Certain studies pertaining to antidepressants regard Prozac (fluoxetine) as the most famous. The drug was least effective but most patients were able to tolerate it, while it is presently out of patent. The patients did not report major side effects. However, amitriptyline is considered as the most effective antidepressant for treating depression, whereas the rate of tolerating it was below that of Prozac. (Khan & Brown, 2015) The three key drugs considered as ranking best in terms of their tolerability and efficacy comprise of agomelatine, vortioxetine, and escitalopram. Others including fluvoxamine, trazodone, and reboxetine ranked poorly based on their tolerability and efficacy. Whereas doctors might regard the best three antidepressants as the first choice, venlafaxine and amitriptyline are considered as the most effective and first choice when it comes to severe depression (Cipriani, et al., 2016) . However, it is crucial to note that each drug has unique uses while it works differently for different classes of individuals.
For antidepressants together with psychological therapies, especially cognitive behavioral therapy, they have similar rates of success. Estimates reveal that approximately 60 percent of persons are able to respond to the drugs within a duration of two months whereas they realize a symptom reduction of around 50 percent. They show improvements in mood and better sleep among other positive influences (Abdallah, Sanacora, Duman, & Krystal, 2015) . Nonetheless, around 80 percent of individuals refrain from utilizing the drugs after about a month, which might serve as the reason as to why a considerable number of persons do not realize improvements in their symptoms. People are in constant need of new treatments. Most of the popular antidepressants normally work by raising the levels of serotonin, a chemical messenger within the brain, although many individuals are not certain (Duman, 2014) . In this case, it challenges emerge when it comes to developing a precise depression treatment. The industry has pulled this as a key challenge to handle.
Additional experts stipulate that studies on the benefits that antidepressants present end the controversy surrounding antidepressants. The drugs works in a manner that improves the mode of the people while at the same time assisting individuals to deal with their depressive situations. Here, additional studies carried out by pharmaceutical firms would play a critical role in illustrating the numerous benefits that antidepressants present to persons (Gibson, Cartwright, & Read, 2014) . Thus, it is crucial to realize that antidepressants play a significant role when it comes to treating depression. Depression leads many people to experience misery on a yearly basis while using antidepressants can lead persons to relieve most of those symptoms (Abdallah, Sanacora, Duman, & Krystal, 2015) . Whereas a large number of persons perceive consumption of depressants as negative, mostly because of the stigma surrounding persons having mental health situations, they can assist persons to avoid the repercussions that result from severe depression. In this sense, persons need to realize that depression serves as a major mental illness, which would result to increased distress among patients, friends, and family (Choi, Lovett, Kang, Lee, & Choi, 2015) . Therefore, they should not ignore the condition, but need to focus on using medications, including antidepressants to allow them deal with such conditions.
Limitations of Antidepressants
Irrespective of some of the benefits associated with antidepressants, they also feature various limitations that are worth considering. The drugs are associated with various physical symptoms, which patients develop by using them including skin rashes, insomnia, muscle and joint pain, headaches, nausea, stomach upset, and diarrhoea. These symptoms might be mild or temporary (Gibson, Cartwright, & Read, 2014) . The severe problem that emerges relates to reduction in the capacity of blood clotting due to reduced neurotransmitter serotonin concentration in platelets. Patients also experience increased risks of uterine or stomach bleeding while they might need blood transfusion in the event of surgery. The risks resembles the ones that result from bleeding sue to use of the NSAIDS (aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen) (Chen, et al., 2015) . In the event that patients utilize antidepressants and NSAIDS simultaneously, the level of threat doubles, which requires patients to exercise caution when using the drugs.
Using antidepressants also leads users to experience involuntary movements. These might comprise of muscle spasms, tics, and repetitive movement of the muscles, Parkinsonism, and compulsive restlessness. Severe anxiety might follow these incidences (Hadidi, Lindquist, Buckwalter, & Savik, 2015) . Whereas these symptoms are rare, they mostly occur among the elderly as well as the patients who take citalopram and fluoxetine, which serve as the antidepressants taking longest for the body to eliminate (Gustavson, et al., 2016) . Additionally, taking antidepressants has sexual effect. For a large number of persons, antidepressants reduce their sexual desire, interest, satisfaction, performance or all these instances. When it comes to men, the drugs might inhibit or delay ejaculation while it prevents or hinders orgasm among women. They also prevent the vagina from lubricating, penis erection, and clitoris’ engorgement. Other users might lose interest in sex functionally. Lowering consumption of the dose might assist or patients might lose the benefit of the drug (Duman, 2014) . They can also focus on substituting with bupropion, which follows a different working mechanism while it does not have sexual side effects.
Antidepressants also pose the problem of interacting with other drugs. The liver breaks down the antidepressants to enzymes referred to as cytochrome P450 system. Through engaging these kinds of enzymes, the antidepressants might pump out other medications that need a similar process of breaking down which leads to a rise in blood level as well as extending the liver’s action. Most danger is attributed to paroxetine and fluoxetine (Thacker, Fugh-Berman, & Hirsch, 2016) . Physicians prescribing antidepressants should understand about the other drugs patients are consuming to determine whether a need for adjusting the dose prevails. When individuals take the antidepressants together with other drugs capable of enhancing the activity of the serotonin, they might establish a rare condition referred to as serotonin syndrome, which features sweating, racing heart, high blood pressure, high fever, as well as delirium (Cipriani, et al., 2016) . In general, users should refrain from combining antidepressants with other kinds of medications.
Antidepressants are known to lose their effectiveness after several months or years. The reason for this is that the brain of some users might emerge responsive to such drugs, while the ideal solution revolves around boosting the dose or changing to a different antidepressant that works in a different manner (Wu & Davis-Ajami, 2014) . Other persons portray discontinuation symptoms. The symptoms that might arise after stopping using antidepressants might comprise of coordination loss, dizziness, burning, tingling, insomnia, blurred vision, and vivid dreams. Less frequently, patients might experience diarrhoea, nausea, irritability, flu-like symptoms, crying spells, and anxiety (Sonei, et al., 2017) . A discontinuation syndrome serves as the ideal description as opposed to withdrawal reaction, which is usually affiliated with addiction. For the syndrome, it might be brief and mild although not during all instances, while it reaches peak during the initial weak and fades rapidly. Whereas it is crucial to stop some of the drugs instantly, paroxetine usually leads to the most severe symptoms of discontinuation (Molyneaux, Howard, McGeown, Karia, & Trevillion, 2017) . In this case, the longer-lasting drugs are beneficial while certain clinicians recommend changing to fluoxetine before reducing the dose gradually.
Prior to birth, antidepressants have various influences. Certain studies reveal of increased risks for premature delivery in line with reduced birth weights when individuals take antidepressants while pregnant particularly during the last three months. During birth, the infants might experience withdrawal symptoms, such as crying, jitters, shivering, irritability, and seizures (Mitchell, Davies, Cassesse, & Curran, 2014) . In addition to the depression that the mother shows, the infants experience respiratory distress when subjected to paroxetine during the past pregnancy stages. The symptoms appear most severe during the initial days while they end by a month (Correll, Detraux, De Lepeleire, & De Hert, 2015) . Discontinuation symptoms reports pose challenges when it comes to interpreting them since they do not result from controlled experiments. It is crucial to weight the risks that the foetus faces against numerous depression risks to both the child and the mother. For the mothers with serious depression, they require antidepressants more when pregnant since depression alone might influence the unborn child. (Khan & Brown, 2015) During such instances, it would be crucial to consider prescribing antidepressants to mothers when pregnant. In addition, it is crucial to apply similar cautions in the event of breastfeeding mothers.
The idea of suicidal thoughts prevails with usage of antidepressants. The idea that antidepressants would lead individuals to engage in self-destructive or violent actions serves as an area subject to controversy (Gustavson, et al., 2016) . The major reason for this results from the growing number of adolescents and kids receiving antidepressant prescriptions. An assessment of clinical trials among patients below 18 years revealed that antidepressants led to a rise in suicidal thoughts. Numerous other studies have emerged and while the results differ, a consistency prevails in the trend (Correll, Detraux, De Lepeleire, & De Hert, 2015) . The different kinds of antidepressants are considered as having the capacity of doubling suicidal thoughts threat from around 2 percent to around 4 percent among kids and adults. During October 2004, after the Congress and parents showed increased hesitation, the FDA warned pharmacists and physicians on the idea of withdrawing the commonly used antidepressants from the market. It based its arguments on the risks of hostility, suicidal thoughts, and agitation among adults and children (Chen, et al., 2015) . Additionally, the FDA advised physicians, parents, and pharmacists while offering to offer an information guide that should accompany every new form of prescription.
Professional institutions also seem to be following the trend. For instance, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry instituted a body that would be responsible for evaluating controlled trials, establishing standards, as well as issuing guidelines on how the children would use the drugs (Mitchell, Davies, Cassesse, & Curran, 2014) . The organization has also shown commitment in working together with NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) with the goal of publishing reviews pertaining to these situations while at the same time serving as guides for investigators (Read, Gibson, & Cartwright, 2016) . In the event of the American Medical Association, it is developing an autonomous assessment of proof concerning the benefits and threats associated with antidepressants.
For the self-destructive thoughts as well as feelings among patients using antidepressants, they might emanate from akathisia or anxiety. During certain times, individuals having concealed bipolar disorder portray irritable reactions after using the antidepressants. Certain patients might have the capacity of realizing back their energy hence their capacity to act before their home returns or mood improves. The risk is intense during the initial treatment weeks (Chen, et al., 2015) . When patients start showing suicidal thoughts after using antidepressants for several months, the drug might not be the cause. It might be resulting from an existing illness. It would be probable to avoid poor outcomes via close monitoring as well as regular follow-ups (Choi, Lovett, Kang, Lee, & Choi, 2015) . It is crucial to warn patients that they would experience bad feelings for a certain duration while ensuring to notify their prescribing physicians in the event that they establish new symptoms or feel worse, especially when they change the dose or medication.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the idea of antidepressants has realized significant popularity in various parts of the world, while the U.S. serves as the country with a large number of users. Various views prevail regarding the manner in which the antidepressants operate. Some experts argue that antidepressants are effective while others perceive them as controversial for various reasons. Differing views prevail regarding the manner in which antidepressants work, while they are considered as most effective in terms of allowing the users to deal with depression, which has significant influence on other areas of their lives that might lead their depression to worsen in the absence of failing to use the antidepressants. However, irrespective of the benefits associated with antidepressants when it comes to treating depression, they also feature a myriad of limitations, which serve as the key reasons hindering persons from using them for fear of the resulting complications. In this vein, whereas antidepressants feature benefits as well as drawbacks, users and clinicians should ensure to understand that each drug works in a unique manner. This way, it would be possible to choose the one that works best for a certain user to avid the many complications that result from using them.
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