There are patients that need Augmenter antidepressants to make their medication more effective and of these, the most prescribed is Lithium and triiodothyronine. There are also other drugs that are neuroleptic or antipsychotic that can be used as augmenters. These types of antidepressants are given for melancholic patients. The effectiveness of these augmenter antidepressant drugs is combined with the regular antidepressant to produce results. Another type of antidepressants called tricyclic serves as an augmenter for SSRIs. The purpose of these antidepressants is to replace any of these two. If no changes have been noticed after the drug is introduced, the doctor may alternate the other drug for another augmenter.

 

Antidepressants like fluoxetine and paroxetine augment the levels of TCA in the bloodstream. If you use sertaline though, it does not increase the TCA levels like the former two does. The blood of the patient is closely monitored if he is using antidepressants. Once SSRIs are introduced into the bloodstream and there is noticeable change, another antidepressant, TCA is entered into your system carefully, and dosages can be adjusted gradually. Two other drugs that serve as augmenters are trifluoperazine and perphenazine that serve well for patients that are acutely delusional. Even in cases where the delusions of the patient are not so grave, augmenter antidepressant drugs are still used. This type of antidepressant is called antipsychotic medicines specifically used for patients with depression that are experiencing psychotic signs.

 

While the augmenter may greatly improve the condition of the depressed patient, it is not advisable to stay long on this medication because it poses a lot of bad side effects like tardive dyskinesia. The benzodiazepine drug alprazolam is one of the recommended augmenter antidepressants. The antidepressant clonazepam aids in the suppression of paranoid thoughts if coupled with a neuroleptic. Some of the usually enlisted neuroleptics used as augmenter antidepressant drugs include clozapine, chlorpromazine, haloperidol, loxapine, fluphenazine, molindone, mesoridazine, perphenazine, thioridazine, pimozide, thiothixene, risperidone and trifluoperazine. This list of drugs includes regular antipsychotic medications. However, these are used as medicines to treat depression and psychosis.