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Anxiety Depression Medication: Safety and
Side Effects of Anxiety and Depression Medications

While anxiety disorder and depression have been classified as distinct clinical conditions, research has shown that about half of those who suffer from an anxiety disorder are also clinically depressed.

If you suffer from anxiety, you are convinced at every waking moment that the world is about to fall in on you, even without solid evidence to support your fears. It's not too far a leap from that mindset to the idea that life is just too hard.

And once you've decided that life is too hard, your brain will kick in with, "Well, then, why bother?" and cut back on generating the impulses which keep you emotionally, intellectually, and physically on your toes. Welcome to depression.

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So what you are hoping for is an anxiety depression medication. Are there really anxiety depression medications which will be equally effective in treating both disorders? Because anxiety and depression so often appear in the same individual, pharmaceutical companies developed anxiety depression medications that can be used to treat both conditions simultaneously. They belong to a family of drugs called the benzodiazepines.

The benzodiazepines act as anxiety depression medication by enhancing the brain's production of Gamma Amino Butyric Acid, or GABA. The brain's major neurotransmitter, GABA functions to slow down hyperactive brain cells.

Benzodiazepine anxiety depression medications make the GABA work better, and when the agitated brain cells causing anxiety relax, so will you. When your anxiety is gone, your anxiety-induced depression will have nothing to continue feeding it negative thoughts. The most commonly prescribed benzodiazepine anxiety depression medications are Valium, Xanax, and Ativan.

But studies of anxiety depression medications have found that anxiety sufferers who did not have anxiety-related depression, and used benzodiazepines long-term, were at risk of developing depression from the medication itself. The depression would lift when the medications were discontinued, but in 1988, the UK Committee on Safety in Medicines recommended that the use of benzodiazepines as anxiety depression medication be stopped.

Given the findings of the UK Committee, it is essential that the use of any anxiety depression medication be prescribed and overseen by a doctor. A drug which works wonders for one person's anxiety and depression may be totally ineffective, or even cause severe side effects, when prescribed for someone else.

So if you are battling the twin demons of anxiety and depression, and alternative therapies haven't helped, consult a doctor, and see if there is a prescription anxiety depression medication which will be both safe and effective for YOU!

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Anxiety Depression Medication: Safety and Side Effects of Anxiety and Depression Medications

Anxiety Depression Medication: Safety and
Side Effects of Anxiety and Depression Medications