QUESTION:

Dear Dr. Heller,

I am a 49 year old married male with three children and I have tremendous anxiety and depression. I have tried Paxil in the past and it worked for a while but then after about 10 months, lost its effectiveness, so I discontinued its use. I have trouble sleeping through the night and am short tempered. I'm currently seeing a therapist who suggested I see my Internist for medication but when I do the Internist often just does not know what to suggest. Do you have a suggestion for medication that I can pass along to him? Do you think there are reasons for concern for long term use of these antidepressants?.

DR. HELLER'S ANSWER:

Like everyone else you need all your diagnoses made and treated comprehensively. My screening test may be very helpful to you. It's unusual for only one diagnosis to be present. Many people erroneously think that there is one "mental health pill" that covers everything - but this is not true.

As with all medications we don't know what the effects will be decades later. We do know that untreated depression and anxiety causes many problems including infections - which can be fatal, heart disease, strokes and cancer.

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