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How Long Does Depression Take To Get Cured?
Question: My boyfriend of 6 months is diagnosed with clinical depression. He is on wellbutrin and Prozac. on the Wellbutrin he is on the extended release caps. He decided about 2months ago to decrease and remove welbutrin by taking one less pill a week for 3 wks then 2 less pills etc. I was surprised and told him I taught he should decrease the dose daily not skip days. He claimed since he could not cut them in half this is what his doctor told him to do. Well he was ok till he got down to 3 pills a week. Then he got very depressed and was mean and basically broke off our relationship. He did start up on the pills again last week and we have spoken and he sounds like he is getting back to normal. My question, how long will it take to get back to normal. He was on this for 20 years, so I realize this was a bad idea on his part.
Brief Answer:
May take a couple more weeks
Detailed Answer:
Hi, thank you for using Healthcare Magic. Many antidepressants take a few weeks to start working. He still had some in his system so it may only be another week or two for him to get back to normal levels.
The fact that you have noticed some improvement with him being on the pills again just for a week is reassuring. Different people process drugs differently in the body, and it appears your boyfriend is processing it quickly.
A patient on long-term antidepressants can sometimes have a remission of the disease, in which case they might be able to get off the medicine for awhile. Unfortunately this does not appear to be the case for your boyfriend. He might have to continue them indefinitely.
Hope this answers your query. If you have further questions, I would be happy to answer them.
May take a couple more weeks
Detailed Answer:
Hi, thank you for using Healthcare Magic. Many antidepressants take a few weeks to start working. He still had some in his system so it may only be another week or two for him to get back to normal levels.
The fact that you have noticed some improvement with him being on the pills again just for a week is reassuring. Different people process drugs differently in the body, and it appears your boyfriend is processing it quickly.
A patient on long-term antidepressants can sometimes have a remission of the disease, in which case they might be able to get off the medicine for awhile. Unfortunately this does not appear to be the case for your boyfriend. He might have to continue them indefinitely.
Hope this answers your query. If you have further questions, I would be happy to answer them.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj
Even though these were the time released ones, you think it will take another week or two for levels to be back to normal?
Brief Answer:
Perhaps a week or so to start working
Detailed Answer:
Antidepressants work by changing the metabolism of neurotransmitters in the brain. These changes take a little time. That is the reason for the delay.
He probably already has a therapeutic level of the drug in his blood. Whether he's taking short or long time release pills doesn't matter. It's however long it takes for the drug to get into the brain and start the sequence of changes in the neurotransmitter action.
He is already showing some response. I am estimating it should not take MORE than a maximum of a couple weeks for the full effect, and probably much less. There is no way to pin an exact time on it, however. Hope this helps.
Perhaps a week or so to start working
Detailed Answer:
Antidepressants work by changing the metabolism of neurotransmitters in the brain. These changes take a little time. That is the reason for the delay.
He probably already has a therapeutic level of the drug in his blood. Whether he's taking short or long time release pills doesn't matter. It's however long it takes for the drug to get into the brain and start the sequence of changes in the neurotransmitter action.
He is already showing some response. I am estimating it should not take MORE than a maximum of a couple weeks for the full effect, and probably much less. There is no way to pin an exact time on it, however. Hope this helps.
Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj
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