Antidepressant Anafranil

Have you ever came across the term obsessive-compulsive disorder? Well, it is a mental disorder in which a person tends to carry out some compulsive and obsessive activities which hampers daily life.

Suppose, you are doing a work, and if you have the obsessive and compulsive disorder, then you will tend to repeat that work after every few minutes. For example, washing your hands, checking the things or even counting too many times, these activities, to a certain extent, can be thought to be as normal, yet, when the frequency of such activities increase too much, it is touted to be a severe mental disorder which might hamper your healthy well being.

So, in order to treat this kind of mental disorders, we use a class of medicines which are known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Basically, these kind of medicines is tricyclic antidepressants which tend to affect some of the unbalanced chemical reactions in your brain and calm down your nervous system; as a result of which the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder ceases to exist.

Well, there are certain types of chemical reactions which are going on in our brain. The product of these chemical reactions is a hormone known as serotonin. This serotonin is responsible for making our nervous system calm and helps us to take proper decisions. However, if the quantity of this serotonin decreases in our nervous system due to any unfortunate reason, then the brain starts to dysfunction and results in various mental disorders.

So, in this article, we are going to discuss such a tricyclic antidepressant which is very popular amongst the medicinal fraternity to treat and cure the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The name of this medicine is Anafranil.

How to use the Anafranil?

Anafranil is a tricyclic antidepressant and it should be consumed as per the strict guidelines and restrictions prescribed by the psychiatrist. Although the dosage of Anafranil is different for the adults and for the children, yet, it has been seen that many psychiatrists and doctors tend to prescribe a lower dosage in the first week of the treatment. This is done so as to decrease the chances of emergence of any kind of side effects from the consumption of Anafranil.

Usually, the normal dosage for an adult is approximately 25 milligrams of Anafranil, whereas, on the other hand, the dosage for the pediatrics is about 20 milligrams daily. It is prescribed that you should consume a pill of Anafranil twice a day along with your meals. One thing which should be noted while consuming Anafranil is that it can be consumed both with or without food.

When to use Anafranil?

Apart from this, one thing which should be taken into consideration while consuming Anafranil is that you should consume this medication only when you are about to rest or go to sleep. This is done because once you consume a pill of Anafranil, there are some chemical reactions which initiate in your brain and leads to drowsiness and sleepiness which can affect your daily jobs. So, it is recommended that you should only consume Anafranil when you are about to rest or in a peaceful place.

Suicidal behavior after consuming Anafranil

One of the most fatal side effects after consuming Anafranil is that of the initiation of the suicidal tendencies among the patients. Basically, after you consume a tricyclic antidepressant medication, there are numerous possibilities that you may be suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Suppose, you are suffering from mental disorder and your brain cells have a particular quantity of neurotransmitters or serotonin and dopamine. However, when you start to consume the tricyclic antidepressant medications, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors enhance the amount of serotonin and dopamine in your blood cells and allow the neutron transmitters to transfer the signals more efficiently.

Hence, due to such a sudden change in the amount of serotonin in the brain cells, a situation arises in which the younger generation patients tend to feel a weird suicidal tendency about them. Although, it is very normal that during the initial weeks of treatment, a patient is sure to get some withdrawal symptoms, yet, it is also equally important that you inform your psychiatrist or doctor if you face any kind of such medical issues of suicidal tendencies.

Can pregnant women use Anafranil

It has been seen that the treatment procedure of tricyclic antidepressants has not shown a significant change in the metabolism of a pregnant woman. Apart from this, many psychiatrists and doctors have stated that they do not have substantial research papers on the effect of what pill of tricyclic antidepressant might have on a pregnant woman.

But still, in order to ensure safety and hygiene, both physical and mental for the new unborn baby, most of the psychiatrist and doctors advised that women who are expecting a baby or are pregnant, should not consume Anafranil or any other kind of tricyclic antidepressants. This is solely because of the fact that if a mother starts to consume Anafranil or any other kind of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, then, there is a very high possibility that the crucial ingredients of this medication might carry over to the lactating glands and finally, to the breast milk of the mother.

So, when the new-born baby drinks the breast milk from the mother, there are very high chances that the baby might get affected by the antidepressant medication. Since the requirement for serotonin is very low in a new-born baby, any kind of fluctuation in the serotonin and dopamine levels in such a small baby may lead to unpredictable mental issues.

Do not stop the medication without informing the doctor!!

It has been seen numerous times that people who tend to feel better after consuming certain tablets tend to abandon the entire medication process without even completing it. It is to be remembered that this kind of activities might lead to a far worse situation than your current depression. This is because when you have not completed the course of the antidepressant medication, the amount of serotonin in your brain cells become very fragile and it becomes highly possible that the level of serotonin and dopamine might fall beyond safe limits after abandoning the medication.