Clonidine is a blood pressure medication from the 1970s that turned out to be useful for half a dozen things it was never designed for.

Strattera is the non-stimulant ADHD medication that most adults don’t think about until they have to, which is usually because stimulants are off the table for some reason. It’s slower, less of a felt effect, and doesn’t have the controlled…

Buspar is the anti-anxiety drug I wish more people had heard of, mostly because it’s the answer to a lot of situations where the patient or the prescriber is reaching for a benzo without quite realizing there’s a middle option.…

Paxil is the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, the standard first-line antidepressant class) I almost never start a new patient on, and the…

Celexa is the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, the standard first-line antidepressant class that boosts serotonin without much else going on)…

Effexor is the SNRI (serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, the antidepressant class that hits both serotonin and norepinephrine instead of just…

Trazodone is the most prescribed sleep medication in the United States that was never actually approved as a sleep medication.