Why Neurologists Should Remember About Antidepressants

The importance of neurological diseases and mood disorders for human health and life, as well as for health care and society as a whole, cannot be overestimated. Nervous system pathologies such as stroke, neurodegenerative and demyelinating diseases, are one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world, and up to 60% of suicides are associated with depression. Antidepressants are used not only in psychiatric practice, but also in the practice of neurologists. Neurologists prescribe antidepressants to treat depression in neurological patients, chronic pain syndromes and neuropathic pain, panic attacks, eating disorders, premenstrual syndrome and for migraine prevention. The most difficult task for neurologists is to identify depressive disorders that often comorbid neurological diseases. The main property of antidepressants is the ability to increase depressed mood without increasing normal mood and without showing a stimulating effect. Antidepressants also have anti-anxiety, sedative, anti-phobic, anti-panic and somatic effects. When depression is detected in patients with neurological pathology, the prescription of antidepressants is justified not only from the psychiatric (relieving depression and reducing the risk of suicide), but also from the neurological point of view (reducing the risk of complications of neurological pathology and premature mortality from it).