The Most Effective Antidepressant You"ve Never Heard Of
Even the author of the bestselling memoir Prozac Nation could not have envisioned the incredible increase in the use of prescription antidepressants in the decades the followed the publication of her book.
Less than five percent of Americans were swallowing drugs like Paxil, Zoloft, and Prozac when Elizabeth Wurtzel released her book in 1994.
That proportion has more than doubled since, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
With one in 10 Americans now taking antidepressant medications, it's hard to believe that pharmacological treatments for the disease are actually lacking.
What's the problem? While it is true that doctors are prescribing more antidepressants, it is also true that the population is demanding more of them than ever.
One reason is that many patients switch from one pill to the next in the hope of finding a medication that works better for them.
But because most of these pills are in the same class of drugs - namely the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class - they do not differ all that much.
As a result, those that experience unpleasant side effects on one SSRI will most likely suffer the same adverse reactions with another pill.
What is therefore desperately needed is a drug that is just as effective as SSRIs in treating depression, but is not a member of that class.
Is Tianeptine the answer? Discovered and patented in France in the 1960s, tianeptine is a tricyclic antidepressant that is used mainly in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD).
Although it was incorrectly labeled an SSRI based on early testing, more recent research has uncovered a novel neurochemical profile.
The data also confirmed that tianeptine is unlike any conventional treatment for depression and related disorders.
In fact, it compares favorably to some of the most popular prescription antidepressants on the market today.
Here's why.
Fewer and less serious side effects The number one reason patients either switch antidepressants or stop using them altogether is that they experience adverse effects.
Even the most popular prescription meds come with a laundry list of potential side effects, including: nausea, weight gain, sexual problems, insomnia, anxiety, agitation, drowsiness and fatigue.
As you may have noticed, many of these side effects could and often do exacerbate the underlying depression.
A person who experiences increased anxiety because of the antidepressants he is on, for example, might sink deeper into despondency.
In over four decades of clinical testing, tianeptine has never been linked with adverse cognitive, psychomotor, or sleep effects that might aggravate the symptoms of severe depression.
Tianeptine also has a low propensity for abuse, which cannot be said of most SSRIs and other tricyclic antidepressants.
In fact, about 18 percent of all pharmaceutical overdose deaths in 2011 involved these conventional antidepressants.
Fast-acting medication Another common complaint about conventional antidepressants is the slow onset of therapeutic effects.
Although the claim is often made that patients should start seeing (or feeling) results within two weeks, most people don't start experiencing the full positive effects of the medication for at least six to eight weeks.
It is during this period that most users seriously consider going off their antidepressants because the side effects can be severe.
Of particular concern is the fact that many SSRI have characteristic anxiogenic effects, which means that they actually cause anxiety in the short term! Tianeptine, by comparison, has characteristic anxiolytic effects, which means that it reduces anxiety.
Several controlled studies have found that the tricyclic antidepressant helps alleviate anxiousness caused by stress and other factors.
It is therefore relevant to mention that tianeptine has also proven effective at treating the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PRSD).
In other words, the increasingly popular pill has much broader applications than most other antidepressants.
No weight gain Up to 25 percent of people who take SSRI antidepressants pack on pounds.
Doctors aren't quite sure why weight gain occurs, but many speculate that the drugs have an adverse metabolic influence.
What we can say for certain, however, is that tianeptine does not appear to effect bodyweight in any meaningful way.
For obvious reasons, weight gain often exacerbates the symptoms of depression and makes the suffer feel even worse about themselves than they did before.
This fact alone makes tianeptine an attractive alternative to SSRIs, especially for long-time users.
No loss of efficacy Doctors don't understand it, but some patients complain that their antidepressants simply stop working over time.
Known as tachyphylaxis, it is a common reasons why MDs switch patients to other medications or add additional antidepressants to existing treatments.
Once again, tianeptine does not appear to suffer from this all-too-common shortcoming.
There is, in fact, ample evidence to suggest that tianeptine actually grows more effective the longer it is taken.
Several open long-term trials have confirmed that the efficacy of the tricyclic antidepressant actually increases with time.
One clinical trial found that an astonishing 78 percent of subjects with MDD responded favorably to regular treatment with tianeptine.
Furthermore, the medication has proved a remarkably effective treatment option for depressed patients with anxiety.
Neuroprotective properties Chronic stress and/or depression can damage brain structure and connectivity.
Several landmark studies have confirmed that stress triggers long-term changes in the brain that may contribute to emotional and cognitive impairment.
While SSRIs are designed to blocks the reabsorption of the brain chemical serotonin, tianeptine stops stress from damaging the brain.
How? According to the research, tianeptine prevents chronic stress from harming nerve cells (neurons) in the hippocampus and amygdala, which are two regions of the brain that are involved in learning, creating new memories, and emotional processing.
Neuroscientists have also discovered that the drug prevents acute stress from damaging synaptic plasticity in the prefrontal cortex.
In layperson's terms, that means that tianeptine preserves brain cells and helps them communicate with each when they need to.
Conclusion Egregiously underutilized because it has not been approved for prescription use in the United States, tianeptine is an atypical antidepressant that addresses many of the common complaints of conventional antidepressants.
Fewer and less severe side effects, superior long-term efficacy, and faster onset of antidepressant effects are just a few of the advantages tianeptine holds over its far more popular peers.
The drug is also a well-established anxiolytic that is used to treat patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (disorder) and other anxiety-related illnesses.
Not to mention the fact that tianeptine will not cause weight gain with extended use.
Not bad for medication nobody on this side of the Atlantic has ever heard of! Well, not yet, anyway.
Less than five percent of Americans were swallowing drugs like Paxil, Zoloft, and Prozac when Elizabeth Wurtzel released her book in 1994.
That proportion has more than doubled since, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
With one in 10 Americans now taking antidepressant medications, it's hard to believe that pharmacological treatments for the disease are actually lacking.
What's the problem? While it is true that doctors are prescribing more antidepressants, it is also true that the population is demanding more of them than ever.
One reason is that many patients switch from one pill to the next in the hope of finding a medication that works better for them.
But because most of these pills are in the same class of drugs - namely the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class - they do not differ all that much.
As a result, those that experience unpleasant side effects on one SSRI will most likely suffer the same adverse reactions with another pill.
What is therefore desperately needed is a drug that is just as effective as SSRIs in treating depression, but is not a member of that class.
Is Tianeptine the answer? Discovered and patented in France in the 1960s, tianeptine is a tricyclic antidepressant that is used mainly in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD).
Although it was incorrectly labeled an SSRI based on early testing, more recent research has uncovered a novel neurochemical profile.
The data also confirmed that tianeptine is unlike any conventional treatment for depression and related disorders.
In fact, it compares favorably to some of the most popular prescription antidepressants on the market today.
Here's why.
Fewer and less serious side effects The number one reason patients either switch antidepressants or stop using them altogether is that they experience adverse effects.
Even the most popular prescription meds come with a laundry list of potential side effects, including: nausea, weight gain, sexual problems, insomnia, anxiety, agitation, drowsiness and fatigue.
As you may have noticed, many of these side effects could and often do exacerbate the underlying depression.
A person who experiences increased anxiety because of the antidepressants he is on, for example, might sink deeper into despondency.
In over four decades of clinical testing, tianeptine has never been linked with adverse cognitive, psychomotor, or sleep effects that might aggravate the symptoms of severe depression.
Tianeptine also has a low propensity for abuse, which cannot be said of most SSRIs and other tricyclic antidepressants.
In fact, about 18 percent of all pharmaceutical overdose deaths in 2011 involved these conventional antidepressants.
Fast-acting medication Another common complaint about conventional antidepressants is the slow onset of therapeutic effects.
Although the claim is often made that patients should start seeing (or feeling) results within two weeks, most people don't start experiencing the full positive effects of the medication for at least six to eight weeks.
It is during this period that most users seriously consider going off their antidepressants because the side effects can be severe.
Of particular concern is the fact that many SSRI have characteristic anxiogenic effects, which means that they actually cause anxiety in the short term! Tianeptine, by comparison, has characteristic anxiolytic effects, which means that it reduces anxiety.
Several controlled studies have found that the tricyclic antidepressant helps alleviate anxiousness caused by stress and other factors.
It is therefore relevant to mention that tianeptine has also proven effective at treating the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PRSD).
In other words, the increasingly popular pill has much broader applications than most other antidepressants.
No weight gain Up to 25 percent of people who take SSRI antidepressants pack on pounds.
Doctors aren't quite sure why weight gain occurs, but many speculate that the drugs have an adverse metabolic influence.
What we can say for certain, however, is that tianeptine does not appear to effect bodyweight in any meaningful way.
For obvious reasons, weight gain often exacerbates the symptoms of depression and makes the suffer feel even worse about themselves than they did before.
This fact alone makes tianeptine an attractive alternative to SSRIs, especially for long-time users.
No loss of efficacy Doctors don't understand it, but some patients complain that their antidepressants simply stop working over time.
Known as tachyphylaxis, it is a common reasons why MDs switch patients to other medications or add additional antidepressants to existing treatments.
Once again, tianeptine does not appear to suffer from this all-too-common shortcoming.
There is, in fact, ample evidence to suggest that tianeptine actually grows more effective the longer it is taken.
Several open long-term trials have confirmed that the efficacy of the tricyclic antidepressant actually increases with time.
One clinical trial found that an astonishing 78 percent of subjects with MDD responded favorably to regular treatment with tianeptine.
Furthermore, the medication has proved a remarkably effective treatment option for depressed patients with anxiety.
Neuroprotective properties Chronic stress and/or depression can damage brain structure and connectivity.
Several landmark studies have confirmed that stress triggers long-term changes in the brain that may contribute to emotional and cognitive impairment.
While SSRIs are designed to blocks the reabsorption of the brain chemical serotonin, tianeptine stops stress from damaging the brain.
How? According to the research, tianeptine prevents chronic stress from harming nerve cells (neurons) in the hippocampus and amygdala, which are two regions of the brain that are involved in learning, creating new memories, and emotional processing.
Neuroscientists have also discovered that the drug prevents acute stress from damaging synaptic plasticity in the prefrontal cortex.
In layperson's terms, that means that tianeptine preserves brain cells and helps them communicate with each when they need to.
Conclusion Egregiously underutilized because it has not been approved for prescription use in the United States, tianeptine is an atypical antidepressant that addresses many of the common complaints of conventional antidepressants.
Fewer and less severe side effects, superior long-term efficacy, and faster onset of antidepressant effects are just a few of the advantages tianeptine holds over its far more popular peers.
The drug is also a well-established anxiolytic that is used to treat patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (disorder) and other anxiety-related illnesses.
Not to mention the fact that tianeptine will not cause weight gain with extended use.
Not bad for medication nobody on this side of the Atlantic has ever heard of! Well, not yet, anyway.
