Depression comes in many guises. It may be mild or severe. It may be treatable with mild or standard medications or with psychotherapy, or with a combination of these. After your doctor has tried several of these without success, she may move on to other antidepressants and combinations of drugs to augment their effectiveness.
Tricyclics
When the latest antidepressants don't work, your doctor may try older forms of these medications. These may include tricyclic antidepressants. Tricyclics, or TCAs, include Pamelor and Aventyl (generic: nortriptyline), Elavil (generic: amitriptyline), Tofranil (imipramine) or Norpramin (desipramine).
MAOIs
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors are another form of older depression treatment medication. Again, these may be tried when more-modern medications don't seem to help your depression. MAOIs include Marplan (isocarboxazid), Nardil (phenelzine) and Parnate (tranylcypromine).
Augmentation
Some other types of drugs may be used in combination with standard antidepressants to fight hard-to-treat depression. These may include stimulants such as Dexedrine and Ritalin, anticonvulsant medications such as Tegretol (carbamazepine) and Lamictal (lamotrigine), the bipolar disorder drug lithium, antipsychotic medications such as Zyprexa (olanzapine), the anxiety drug BuSpar (buspirone) or beta blockers such as Visken (pindolol).
