{"id":32616,"date":"2025-04-19T09:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T09:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/32616\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T09:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T09:48:08","slug":"what-is-an-ssri-explaining-the-antidepressant-medication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/32616\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an SSRI? Explaining the antidepressant medication"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

How are SSRIs used to treat depression and anxiety?<\/p>\n

Antidepressants like SSRIs can be life-saving for people struggling with depression, OCD, anxiety and other mental health conditions. Here’s how the work.<\/p>\n

Depression<\/a> is a mental illness<\/a> that can make everyday tasks feel difficult. But health professionals can offer many tools to help keep symptoms at bay.<\/p>\n

Depression, also referred to as major depressive disorder or clinical depression, is a condition that can cause severe symptoms related to the way you feel, think and go about doing daily activities, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)<\/a>. Common symptoms of depression include fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, changes in appetite, sleep disturbances and more.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s important to realize that these are conditions to manage,” psychiatrist Dr. Judith Joseph tells USA TODAY. “Doing daily preventative practices to prevent worsening of depression … is important.”<\/p>\n

One popular avenue to prevent worsening of depression is by taking daily medication, such as an SSRI. While this kind of medication has come under scrutiny as of late<\/a>, medical experts maintain that they’re safe and effective.<\/p>\n

Here’s what health professionals want you to know about SSRIs, and whether they may help you or a loved one experiencing depression or anxiety symptoms.<\/p>\n

In case you missed: <\/strong>Trump, RFK Jr. go after SSRIs in executive order. Here’s how they work<\/a><\/p>\n

What is an SSRI?\u00a0<\/p>\n

SSRI stands for “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor,” a class of medication that medical professionals most commonly prescribe to treat a variety of mental health conditions, according to StatPearls<\/a>, a digital resource available through the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information.<\/p>\n

“They modulate serotonin and other neurotransmitters in the brain and help to ease symptoms of anxiety and depression,” Joseph says, and improve quality of life.<\/p>\n

Common SSRIs include fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine, fluvoxamine, citalopram, escitalopram and vilazodone.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also approved SSRIs to treat a number of other issues including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), bulimia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Health professionals sometimes also prescribe SSRIs for off-label uses including to help with binge eating disorder, fibromyalgia, premature ejaculation, autism and vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause.<\/p>\n

Key explainer: <\/strong>What to know about depression symptoms and treatments<\/a><\/p>\n

How do SSRIs work?<\/p>\n

SSRIs are a subsection of the larger class of antidepressants. Other antidepressants usually prescribed for depression, according to NYU Langone Health<\/a>, include serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors such as venlafaxine and duloxetine and atypical antidepressants including bupropion and mirtazapine.<\/p>\n

Joseph highlights benefits of SSRIs including helping to release tension and anxiety while improving mood. “Other antidepressants may be more activating because of their norepinephrine quality,” she adds.<\/p>\n

Antidepressants in general may cause side effects including an upset gastrointestinal tract, decreased libido, weight gain, headaches, insomnia, tremor or temperature changes, according to Joseph.<\/p>\n

But medical professionals usually prescribe SSRIs, along with other forms of approved antidepressants because they believe the benefits outweigh the side effects. Health providers often prescribe SSRIs because of their “safety, efficacy and tolerability,” per StatPearls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How are SSRIs used to treat depression and anxiety? Antidepressants like SSRIs can be life-saving for people struggling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[6583,1301,105,6582,6590,4326,6581,1022,6588,5598,6093,6589,16,15,2488],"class_list":{"0":"post-32616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-curious","9":"tag-depression","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-just","12":"tag-just-curious","13":"tag-medication","14":"tag-point","15":"tag-seo","16":"tag-seo-wellness","17":"tag-the","18":"tag-to","19":"tag-to-the-point","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-wellness"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114364003601522971","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}