A previous section has discussed the fact that antidepressants are not addictive.

 

Before being released onto the market, all medical substances have to go through a complicated process to ensure their safety for human consumption.  When pre-human testing over a number of years indicates that everything is safe, human volunteers are given the medication being tested, and their health is closely monitored with multiple pathology tests also.

 

After this phase of human testing, the agent is used in a number of trials, typically comparing the antidepressant medication with existing antidepressant medications or placebo.

 

Once an antidepressant agent is approved for general use, a monitoring system applies to all medically prescribed agents, to detect any problems as soon as possible.  Occasionally, after a period of use, a particular medically prescribed agent has been withdrawn from the world markets when a rare problem has been discovered.

 

The reality of life is that nothing is perfectly safe, whether driving a car, or staying at home in one’s house.  Penicillin and other antibiotics have saved millions of lives over the past 50 years, but there are a small number of risks associated even with these generally accepted medical agents, without which many people would die, just like antidepressant medications.

 

Important Disclaimer:  This site is medical information only, and is not to be taken as diagnosis, advice or treatment, which can only be decided by your own doctor.