Husband clinically depressed, not sure what to make of this - please help!

[towsertowers]

My dh has been suffering from depression and taking anti depressants for a few months.
Earlier this week he went to the hospital after having some sort of panic attack (racing heart, stress etc).
The hospital said he was clinically depressed and had an irregular heartbeat caused by stress etc and gave him an appointment with a psychiatrist (?) at the hospital who he will have to see regularly for six months.
What is worrying me is this: the psychiatrist prescribed my dh some beta blockers, anti depressants and something else which the name of I cannot remember.
Dh has gone to stay with a relative to start taking these tablets on the advice of the psychiatrist as he "doesn't need any stress of the children and shouldn't be near them on the first day of him taking the tablets because of the effects", but he needs to have someone with him apparently. He says he is anaemic but cannot be prescribed iron in combination with his medication.
Dh has contacted me after taking to say they are making him very poorly and feeling "schizo" surely this is not normal? Plus he is to return tomorrow (although the psychiatrist recommended 48 hours to "get used" to the tablets) and I am not sure if this is wise considering.
I just wondered what this could mean exactly and what I should do. Is this normal? I have no idea.
many thanks in advance

Hello
Not sure I can give any advice, but wanted to say that going on medication can make you feel very strange to begin with. He needs to give himself time to adjust to them as the psychiatrist advised.

I have suffered several bouts of depression and my dh has too. It can be hard on the partner, so make sure you get some support and time too . Good luck x

would be good to know what the other medication is, is it an antipsychotic (olanzapine maybe?)

Hi there,
only a lowly psych graduate, not a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist, so please don't think I am any type of expert. What I comment on from this is that anti depressants certainly do take some time and the side effctes your dh is experiencing may not necessarily be from these (it could be he is still in teh grips of anxiety attackes which are making him feel this way). However, that does not mean that these will be the right ones for him, often it does involve some trial and error. My main piece of advice here though is I can't see any evidence from hat you have posted so far about a plan for ongoing lt treatment, such as CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). I would suggest for dh asks about this and how they intend to develop a long term plan for handling and hopefully preventing a return. I found cbt particularly useful when I suffered from clinical dpression and have had no reoccurance in over 10 years. However, often people will dismiss drug therapy completely but sometimes it can be helpful in getting the person to a place where they are able to benefit from 'talking' therapies. Ebcourage your dh to get actiuvely involved in his treatmentm its a great first step in feeling you are taking control (at a time when you can feel anything but!)
Hope the situation improves for you, its very tough being the partner and make sure you take care of yourself too.

thank you for the advice

I'm not sure of the name of the other tablets, I just find it worrying that he could even be potentially unsafe around us after taking them.