Lexapro — helps you to feel better when you’re depressed
Lexapro is used to treat Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), more specific anxiety and panic conditions, and major depressive disorders. It belongs to the class of medications known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). As the name suggests, Lexapro changes the level of serotonin in the brain, which relieves symptoms of anxiety and improves your mood. It is also used in cases involving panic and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
There have been a number of comparative clinical trials in which Lexapro has been tested against other SSRIs. All these trials have been double-blind, randomised and placebo controlled, i.e. the participants do not know which medication or placebo they are taking. They simply swallow and report the results (if any). At the time of its launch, Lexapro was found to be distinctly better than the older antidepressants on the market such as paroxetine. In subsequent trials, Lexapro has been found at least as effective as the newer SSRIs such as duloxetine.
How does Lexapro work?
Although you can ask people how they feel, you cannot physically examine the chemistry of their brains when they are depressed or anxious. So researchers cannot give precise explanations of how SSRIs work. The data from clinical trials strongly suggests that depression is caused when the neurotransmitters stop working properly, i.e. they do not allow the neurons to exchange information. Lexapro is designed to change the level of serotonin, one of the neurotransmitters known to affect mood. When one nerve cell releases serotonin so that it can be passed down the chain of cells, some of that serotonin is reabsorbed by each cell as it transmits on to the next. If the first cell does not release enough serotonin to carry down to its intended destination, the chain of cells will run out of serotonin and the complete message will not be delivered. SSRIs block the reabsorption process so that all the serotonin released by the first cell will be available for transmission on to the next. This increases the chances that the message will be delivered as intended.
There is evidence that a broad range of antidepressants including the SSRIs and Lexapro may increase the risk of suicide during the early stages of treatment. Younger patients are slightly more at risk. If you have ever considered killing yourself, you should not take any of the SSRIs in an unsupervised environment.
Lexapro was one of the first medications specifically engineered at a molecular level. Lundbeck and Forest Laboratories collaborated closely to isolate and manipulate the active components of citalopram HBr. Work began in 1997 and the newly created product was submitted to the Food and Drug Administration just over three years later with approval being granted in 2002.
At the time, Lexapro was unique but, as new techniques have developed, many new medications have been produced in a similar time. This new system for developing specific delivery systems grows more common as our understanding of the causes of different conditions improves. If we know that specific chemical conditions are required for particular moods, we can aim to engineer a medication that can produce those precise conditions. Lexapro set the trend for an increasingly scientific approach to the development of medication to control anxieties and relieve depression. So far, clinical trials have always found Lexapro to be one of the best antidepressants on the market with good effects achieved in the reduction of anxiety and panic.
