Psychostimulants as antidepressants: Their nuanced role?

Abstract

While effectively the ‘first antidepressants’, the psychostimulants are rarely prescribed as antidepressant drugs seemingly in light of their judged low effectiveness, side effects, tolerance as well as concerns about dependency and abuse. Recent meta-analyses do find some support for them as being effective antidepressants for those with major depression, but they have not been closely evaluated in terms of their specific nuanced role for treating treatment-resistant (unipolar and bipolar) melancholic depression. The author has so prescribed them for over a decade and offers a case for their benefits for a distinct percentage of those with such conditions and notes their relatively few side effects.