Pharmacotherapy of affectively ill suicidal patients

The development of psychopharmacologic strategies for ameliorating the symptoms associated with major psychiatric disorders is relatively recent in the history of medicine. Regarding depression, the past 30 years have seen the advent of several clinically therapeutic antidepressant medication classes. With the advent of these newer and safer antidepressants, more primary care practitioners are prescribing these drugs, and as a result, more people are being prescribed antidepressant medication than ever before. This article reviews this psychopharmacologic revolution that has emerged as a consequence of a greater understanding of the neurochemical perturbations underlying major affective disorders.