ABCs of antidepressants.

People taking Prozac or similar antidepressant drugs should know "the rules of the game" when it comes to using such medications properly, cautions Lawrence Cohen, a pharmacy professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. In order for them to have value, the following points need to be considered:

* Patients must be good historians" and be thorough and candid when discussing their depression with their treatment staff. They should relay important and pertinent familial information to their physician since it is not uncommon for mood disorders such as chronic depression to run in families. It also is vital to include any history of substance abuse alcohol or other drugs) when giving one's personal and family history. Such information often can be important in tracing origins of chronic depressive symptoms that may be substance-induced.

* Exactly following the instructions related to taking an antidepressant is an important factor in optimizing an individual's pharmacotherapy. "It is critical that the patient be compliant when it comes to taking the prescribed dosage. Skipping several days just to see how one feels or deciding to tough it out' without the drug without consulting with the treatment staff is foolish. It is possible to use 'targeted treatment' in which the antidepressant is interrupted when symptoms are in remission, but it must be done under the direction of a physician."

* Those who must use antidepressants on a continuing basis should get past the notion that they are taking the drug temporarily and will go off it some day when they are cured. "While that would be the ideal, there is nothing wrong with being on a medication for the rest of one's life, if it will assure a better quality of life and it truly is...