Posted by Brainbeard on June 11, 2010, at 9:57:46
In reply to Re: Yep. SSRI's may be worse for the brain than XTC. » Brainbeard, posted by violette on June 11, 2010, at 2:36:54
> Brainbeard - would you mind sharing how SSRIs cause damage to the brain????
Animal studies have shown that SSRI's produce morphological changes in several brain regions after a couple of days of high doses. That is to say, they deform certain parts of the brain. Reseachers saw marked changes in nerve terminals which release serotonin, and they saw cells that shriveled or took on abnormal corkscrew shapes. Moreover, the brain cell changes with SSRIs were similar to those observed with MDMA (XTC).
Now, we don't know wether the same holds true for humans. "We don't know if results with four days of drug treatment are clinically significant," says Madhu Kalia, the professor at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia who led the study. "We don't know if the cells are dying. That's the key question. We need to do more studies to prove cell death. These effects may be transient and reversible. Or they may be permanent."
Well, apparently noone is interested in funding these studies - they would be very costly and where does the money for pharmacological research usually come from? Yep, from the pharmaceutical industry. What interest would Big Pharma have in funding studies that would show SSRI's to be neurotoxic?
Although scientifically, we don't know wether SSRI's cause permanent or long-lasting brain damage, in real life there are lots of clues that point to temporary or permanent brain damage. One such clue is the often persistant sexual dysfunction and lowered libido experienced even years after SSRI use. Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction and other problems are being discussed here on Babble extensively.
Links to the study:
Popular:
http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2000/D/200003824.html
Scientific:
Manic, I hope this overload of information is not lethal. ;)
Current meds: 10mg melitracene + 0.5mg flupentixol; sertraline 100mg; amitriptyline 25mg; gabapentin (Neurontin) 300mg; melatonin 0.3mg. PRN: diazepam (Valium) 2.5-5mg.
poster:Brainbeard
thread:948962
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100604/msgs/950675.html