You feel better right away. “If you respond to an antidepressant very quickly, that’s actually a bad sign,” Dr. Hullett says. Antidepressants work by increasing and balancing feel-good neurochemicals in your brain, including serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, a process that takes some time. Depression relief from an antidepressant usually takes two to 12 weeks to set in, with a peak at six to eight weeks . “So if you feel different immediately after starting a depression treatment, it’s either a side effect of the depression medication or a placebo effect,” Hullett says.
You skipped a dose — or several. Lack of adherence to antidepressant medication can be a reason medications don’t work, as well as a major barrier to depression treatment.
You experience no relief from depression symptoms after a few months. “You should see some improvement within three months of starting an antidepressant,” explains Zinia Thomas, MD, a psychiatrist at Spectrum Psychiatry in St. Louis, Mo. “If you have been on an adequate dose of a depression medication for three months, and you don’t get results, it’s probably time to try something new.”