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With so many people in the United States suffering with anxiety disorders, the rush is on to find more effective treatments for their discomfort. And medication is the first place they look. Medications for anxiety combined with other therapies are the foremost interventions used today. We’ll be looking at the medications available for the various anxiety disorders, how to properly use them and what they can or cannot do.

Let’s take a look at the solutions out there for you, and there’s more than one. This is not an advanced course in psychology or medicine - it’s just to help simplify your way to getting help. Our information is from the ADAA, the Anxiety Association of America. You will learn the names of specific medications, briefly see what they do and how they do it. First a word of caution: medications for anxiety are to be used only under a doctor’s care; and they are not a cure unto themselves. They are usually used before other therapies are introduced to reduce the debilitating symptoms so the individual is able to receive effective benefits from other therapies.

We’ll start with the antidepressants which increase the concentration of the substance known as serotonin, which then alleviates the anxiety. There are three SSRI medications, the most recent antidepressants, and they are Zolaft, Paxil and Prozac, names most of you are familiar with. These are used to treat social and generalized anxiety; posttraumatic stress disorder; panic disorder; and obsessice compulsive disorder.

Tricyclics (TCA) are also antidepressants and these medications for anxiety are Sinequan (Doxeprin), Anafranil, and Vivactil, which, like the SSRIs, alter serotonin but also norepinepherine. Social anxiety is missing from the list of disorders treated by TCAs. Of all these classifications, SSRIs are the only ones federally approved; but generic equivalents are available for each of them.

This last group functions to prevent a brain enzyme from destroying the norepinephrine and serotonin, so they’re called blocking agents. Their name is Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors or (MAOI). The drugs in this classification are Parnate, Nardil and Marplan which are used primarily for social anxiety, posttraumatic stress and panic attacks. They have been effect but as with most medicines, the side effects must be carefully checked.

Medications may be part of the therapy process either at the beginning or introduced later if other therapy is not doing the job. And it may be a good option for you, but it’s important to understand that medications are effective only if taken according to your doctor’s instructions. Please don’t neglect to make a list of questions for your doctor, including both long term and short term side effects.

For those of you who resisting taking medications for anxiety please understand that by following some sensible guidelines like choosing a doctor who is qualified to treat your particular type of anxiety, following his instructions, asking questions and being open about the severity of your anxiety and taking an active part in your own treatment, you should be assured that you will not be a victim of the destructive side effects.

Hopefully this insight into medications for anxiety has been helpful and perhaps has given you a brighter perspective by knowing that anxiety disorders are definitely treatable by all the newest anxiety interventions now available to all who need them. May you be renewed in your quest for good health, physically and spiritually, and may you find it.

Tags: Health

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