Benzodiazepines diazepam bromazepam alprazolam Valium Lexotan Xanax Anti-anxiety drugs, sometimes used to help with insomnia in people with depression. Priadel Litarex Tegretol Sometimes used when other medications fail to work. The drugs used for treating depression are called antidepressants . All of these drugs are thought to work by interacting with brain neurotransmitter systems. There are several classes of antidepressant based on their chemical and pharmacological properties.
Antidepressants usually take between two and eight weeks to work.
1 Others advise their patients to stay on a treatment for 6 months. There is no evidence that any one antidepressant works better than another for depression. A further group gets some help from antidepressants but continue to have some symptoms of depression. The side effects of antidepressants are important in deciding which drug is prescribed. Other considerations are the costs of the drugs and their potential toxicity.