Anxiety medications can take varying amounts of time to start working depending on the type of medication:
- Benzodiazepines (such as Xanax or Klonopin) usually work rapidly, often within hours or up to 30-60 minutes, providing quick relief for acute anxiety or panic attacks. However, they are typically recommended for short-term use due to risks of dependence.
- Antidepressants used for anxiety, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), generally take longer to have an effect. They usually require 2 to 6 weeks to start working and may take up to several months to reach full therapeutic effect. Patients might notice some initial side effects or mild worsening of symptoms before improvement.
- Other medications like buspirone or certain antihistamines used for anxiety also typically take several weeks to show benefits.
Overall, short-term medications act quickly for immediate relief, while long- term medications need daily use for weeks to months to achieve full anxiety symptom control. It's important to follow the prescribing doctor's guidance and communicate about effects and side effects during the adjustment period.
Thus, anxiety meds can work anywhere from minutes to hours for short-term drugs, and from weeks to months for long-term medications.
