Tarmander
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- Joined
- Apr 30, 2015
- Messages
- 3,772
Understanding the unhappy side of serotonin
This is an article that is attempting the explain the first few weeks on an SSRI and the negative feelings that occur within that time period. The article sticks with the dogmatic "Serotonin, a neurotransmitter, is the "happy hormone" thought to boost feelings of well-being." However within the body of the paper is this:
"Prozac, or fluoxetine, boosts serotonin levels. When the scientists exposed 2C-receptor BNST neurons to Prozac, it increased the effect of the 2C-receptor neurons on the neighboring VTA- and LH-projecting neurons. The mice became more fearful and anxious.
To find out how to stop this effect, senior author Thomas L. Kash and his team focused on the anxiety-mediating BNST neurons. They noticed that these neurons expressed a molecule, known as corticotropin releasing factor (CRF). CRF is a stress-signaling neurotransmitter. It is sometimes called corticotropin releasing hormone (CHR).
When the team added a compound to block CRF activity, the fear and anxiety that had been triggered by the Prozac were greatly reduced."
and
"Kash believes the same thing would happen in humans. SSRIs can cause anxiety in people, he says, and mice and humans tend to have very similar pathways in these brain regions.
"The hope is that we'll be able to identify a drug that inhibits this circuit and that people could take for just the first few weeks of SSRI use to get over that hump."
Thomas L. Kash
The authors hope that this discovery will lead to the development of drugs to counter the negative effects of SSRIs."
Basically a step in the right direction; serotonin is linked with other stress hormones. I wonder how they would spin it when the "CRF inhibitor" alone worked better as an anti depressant then the inhibitor combined with the SSRI.
This is an article that is attempting the explain the first few weeks on an SSRI and the negative feelings that occur within that time period. The article sticks with the dogmatic "Serotonin, a neurotransmitter, is the "happy hormone" thought to boost feelings of well-being." However within the body of the paper is this:
"Prozac, or fluoxetine, boosts serotonin levels. When the scientists exposed 2C-receptor BNST neurons to Prozac, it increased the effect of the 2C-receptor neurons on the neighboring VTA- and LH-projecting neurons. The mice became more fearful and anxious.
To find out how to stop this effect, senior author Thomas L. Kash and his team focused on the anxiety-mediating BNST neurons. They noticed that these neurons expressed a molecule, known as corticotropin releasing factor (CRF). CRF is a stress-signaling neurotransmitter. It is sometimes called corticotropin releasing hormone (CHR).
When the team added a compound to block CRF activity, the fear and anxiety that had been triggered by the Prozac were greatly reduced."
and
"Kash believes the same thing would happen in humans. SSRIs can cause anxiety in people, he says, and mice and humans tend to have very similar pathways in these brain regions.
"The hope is that we'll be able to identify a drug that inhibits this circuit and that people could take for just the first few weeks of SSRI use to get over that hump."
Thomas L. Kash
The authors hope that this discovery will lead to the development of drugs to counter the negative effects of SSRIs."
Basically a step in the right direction; serotonin is linked with other stress hormones. I wonder how they would spin it when the "CRF inhibitor" alone worked better as an anti depressant then the inhibitor combined with the SSRI.
