Pros And Cons Of Antidepressant Medication

Those diagnosed with depression are often prescribed a form of antidepressant medication, but this form of treatment has its disadvantages. Fifty percent of the millions of Americans who have experienced a bout or continuing bout of major depression have been taking antidepressant medication as part of their treatment program (Major depression, 2017). Therefore, the issue of high rates of depression is accompanied with problematic side-effects associated with the traditional treatment for the disorder. In fact, some studies suggest that antidepressant medication users are at an increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality (Hansen, 2016). Similarly, a cohort study by Silva and colleagues

Fluvoxamine, a common serotonin reuptake medication, has a discontinuation rate of 70% (Ferguson, 2001). Other common antidepressant medications like fluoxetine or setraline have discontinuation rates of 45% and 40%, respectively (Ferguson, 2001). These unfortunate figures leave a person susceptible to irritating withdrawal symptoms. Many patients may experience anxiety, sleep disturbances, and flulike symptoms days after stopping their medication. These symptoms are especially apparent when a patient abruptly ends their prescription without tapering or when there is poor adherence. With such complications that accompany antidepressant medication use and our understanding that there are imbalances occurring in the brain, is there an alternative or supplemental treatment that can be

There is strong evidence to suggest that decreased BDNF is associated with hippocampal dysfunction, memory impairment, and increased risk for depression. In mice who voluntarily engaged in wheel running, researchers noticed how the neutrophic upregulation occurred the earliest in the hippocampus, which is a crucial area for repair (Cotman & Cesar, 202). Aerobic exercise also has been shown to increase BDNF and, therefore, reduce the risk for learning and memory deterioration as well as the risk for depression (Erickson et al., 2012). Furthermore, the increase in BDNF levels as a result of exercise was not short-term, but rather long term in that it can stay elevated after 6 continued weeks of voluntary exercise (Cotman & Cesar, 2002). Lastly, it has been suggested that the increases in BDNF are dependent on exercise intensity. An experiment conducted by Vega and colleagues, noted dramatic increases in serum BDNF during a cycling test to exhaustion, but the same dramatic increase was not seen with moderate aerobic exercises lasting over ten minutes (Vega et al., 2006). This may be related to the differences in anaerobic and aerobic exercises, which suggests that exercise training plans should be designed with this in mind. We have seen that exercise has the ability to enhance brain