Problems with currently available antidepressants

Although options for pharmacologic treatment for depression have grown seem ingly exponentially over the past several decades, the current armamentariu m of antidepressants continues to have limitations of both efficacy and tol erability. The problems include an unacceptable lack of efficacy. delayed o nset of therapeutic effects, an inability to predict responses to one or an other agent, drug-drug interactions, and difficulty with tolerability durin g both acute and chronic treatment. This article reviews the problems that persist in the use of currently available antidepressant medications and pr esents a list of attributes that would be characteristic of the ideal antid epressant.