Panic attack medication does not cure panic attacks like a magic pill. That’s what everyone’s looking for isn’t it? The magic pill that will make all your problems go away. Unfortunately things are never really that simple (not even in medical science). In the case of panic attacks, instead of one magic pill, there are a number of different pills that each react differently with different body chemistries. And after finding the right pill for you (often after months of trial and error), it won’t cure your panic attacks like magic, there’s still a period treatment you must go through.
Yes, the topic of panic attack medication might be a bit more complex than we all wish it were but once you and your doctors have figured out the right meds, it can be quite effective at getting rid of the symptoms of panic attacks (although not without the few side effects…). In this article I’ll go over the five major kinds of panic attack medication, what the treatment process is like, and some of the controversy that surrounds them.
There are five different classes of medications available.
1. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) – This kind of medication is a type of antidepressant (a few SSRIs you may have heard of are Lexapro, Prozac, and Zoloft). This is usually the treatment of choice because it has the fewest possible side effects (comparatively) while performing the greatest amount of good.
2. Serotonin Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRI) – If the SSRI doesn’t work, your doctor might prescribe an SNRI as your panic attack medication. Something you should be aware of is that one of the adverse side effects is that they’ve been linked with an increase in teen suicides and as a result, there is a bit of controversy surrounding their use as panic attack medication.
3. Tricyclic Antidepressents – This third class of panic attack medication are effective because they block brain cells from chemicals like serotonin and nonrepinephrine. But these drugs pose an even larger threat in their adverse side effects than both SSRI and SNRI. These effects include heart and blood sugar problems.
4. Benzodiazepines – Unlike all the other classes of panic attack medication, benzodiazepines are mild sedatives. They’re usually prescribed for cases if you only experience occasional attacks and are actually the most popular drug prescribed for panic attacks. One common drug in this class you may have heard of is Valium.
5. Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOI) – The fifth and final class of panic attack medication. This class of drug is rarely prescribed. That’s because the side effects of this drug are actually life threatening. This drug is actually so potent, it’s necessary to take a look at your diet before going on this drug due to negative reactions with certain foods (cheese and chocolate to name a few). Usually you won’t be prescribed with one of these until after all the other classes have been deemed ineffective.
What to Expect in the Treatment Process
As I said earlier, taking panic attack medication will not work like magic. Not only will you need to undergo a long process of figuring out which medication is right for you, these medications will also take time to start working. Treatment can last years.
Now with panic attack medications, it’s not surprising that during your first year or so of treatment you "bounce" around a lot from one medication to another. This often happens as you and your doctor search for the drugs that work best for you.
Also when starting a medication it takes several weeks for you to see and feel any type of difference. Most medications work slowly.
Alternatives to Conventional Medicine
The treatment of panic attacks is actually a fairly new science (it wasn’t recognized as a disorder until 1980!). And although the conventional path has been the use of medication and therapy, there are actually many other methods of treatment that have been known to be very successful, a lot of them developed fairly recently.
These alternatives have not only helped people who prefer to avoid the unappealing side effects (and cost) of prescription medication, but today many believe that the use medication is now truly unnecessary.