Running and antidepressants

Chapter 5 of Scott Douglas's book 'Running Is My Therapy' deals with running and antidepressants. This was an interesting chapter to me, mostly because I take antidepressants off and on. Unfortunately I didn't find much to underline and make note of.

There hasn't been a lot of research done on the subject, and what has been done is mostly in regard to antidepressants as performance-enhancing drugs. There really isn't much evidence of any significant improvement or decrease in exercise performance. 

There's also not much consensus among runners as to the benefits of either taking antidepressants or avoiding them. Some do and find they are helpful, some don't because they found them harmful or simply not helpful enough.

I did discover that SSRIs like sertraline (Zoloft), fluoxetine (Prozac), and citalopram (Celexa) can potentially negatively affect motivation and are not usually recommended for athletes. There are apparently better alternatives. I took Celexa a number of years ago, but have mostly used sertraline, which I'm currently taking. However, I take such a minuscule dose right now (25mg) that I can't imagine it makes much difference one way or the other. I'm presently taking it more for anxiety and possible PTSD than depression. I don't really know if it's helping, but for some reason I feel better than I had been.

There are some interesting statistics regarding antidepressant use by age and gender. CDC data reports women are almost twice as likely as men to use them (16.5% to 8.6%). Usage climbs overall with age: 3.4% in people ages 12-19, 7.8% for ages 20-39, 16.6% for ages 40-59, and 19.1% for ages 60 and over. The highest usage appears to be among non-Hispanic white women at 21.4%, and women ages 60 and over at 24.4%.

Also, current usage trends indicate Americans view antidepressants as a long-term medication. The CDC finds that, of people who take an antidepressant, 44% report doing so for at least the last 5 years. A quarter of antidepressant users say they've been on medication for ten or more years. 

Previously when I'd taken sertraline I progressed from 50mg up to 100 eventually. I forget now how many years ago I weened myself off and stopped altogether. It just didn't seem to be helping all that much. I went years without, and only recently started on the microdose because of my anxiety - which may or may not have had to do with my blood pressure issues... which may or may not have had to do with the AFib...

Next up in the book: Scott takes a look at the intersection of running and several nonpharmaceutical forms of treatment for depression and anxiety. Hopefully there will be something to share regarding those...