Psych antidepressants
Medication class detail with safety cues and nursing action focus.
Mental Healthneeds review
Psych antidepressants
Examples: sertraline, fluoxetine, venlafaxine, amitriptyline
Mechanism
Changes neurotransmitter availability to improve mood symptoms over time.
Used for
- Depression
- Anxiety disorders
- Neuropathic pain for selected agents
Side effects
- GI upset
- Sexual dysfunction
- Serotonin syndrome
- Suicidality warning in young clients
Nursing actions
- Assess suicide risk, especially early in therapy.
- Teach that benefit can take several weeks.
- Watch for serotonin syndrome with combinations.
Hold / question cues
- Serotonin syndrome symptoms
- New suicidal intent
- Manic behavior after start
Antidote / reversal
- No routine class-specific antidote or reversal agent is seeded for this class; hold/question unsafe doses, support ABCs, notify the provider, and use facility or poison-control guidance for toxicity.
NCLEX pearl
- More energy may return before mood fully improves; safety planning matters.
Individual drug cards
Related study cards
Shows conditions, glossary terms, Drive entities, and source-linked cards connected to this medication class.
Source entitymedication class
Antidepressants
Use this medication class topic as a source-linked NCLEX review card for priority assessment, medication safety, client teaching, and first nursing action decisions.
Drugmedication class
Sertraline (Zoloft)
More energy may return before mood improves, so safety planning matters.
Conditionmedication safety
Depression
Safety question comes before general support.
Conditionmedication safety
Suicide precautions
Direct questions do not plant the idea.