Can antidepressants lose their affectiveness?

Medications
1

So I started taking antidepressants a little over a year ago and they worked great for about 6 months… then slowly I lost my motivation and energy again… I stopped taking them all together a few weeks ago

Is it possible for antidepressants to stop working?

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What anti-depressant did you stop taking?

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3

Yes, I think they can lose their effectiveness after you have been on them awhile.

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4

Not sure. Perhaps have a chat with your pdoc to see if this occurs. They may be able to prescribe something else.

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5

Man I hope not because I need mine to keep working forever

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7

I have heard that this is possible yes.

And that some people then increase the dose of the AD.

Although I don’t know if this is always the case

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8

Lexapro. My prescriber and I decided I should stop taking it cause less meds the better

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9

Ah thanks for that link Bowens!!

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10

YES!.. i was on the strongest AD, an MAO-Inhibitor, and it lost its effectiveness.

It is called “Tachyphylaxis” (google it + depression)

I stopped taking my MAO-Inhibitor for a month or two, then started taking it again, and now it is working again, but not as good as the first time I took it.

The strategy to treat Tachyphylaxis is either to increase dose, switch medicine, or stop it for a period of time and then start again.

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I was on Lexapro and it appeared that it stopped working.
I’m on Cymbalta now; so I hope it works better and doesn’t stop working.

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I wish my prescriber took a note of that!

Ever since my old pdoc retired, they have been tanking me up on meds and dx’s

Put my foot down over it all, but I conceded that now I need an anti depressant

I hope they don’t stop after a while, as that would be very disappointing