The Darker Side Of Serotonin Finally Exposed - It Increases Anxiety And Suicide

[haidut]

I guess the fact that such studies are finally starting to come out is a good sign. I don't think this will hurt Prozac sales in any way, but at least now doctors may start to discuss with patients the potential dangers of SSRI, which up until last year were considered to be pure myth. It still baffles me how can FDA approve drugs in the face of evidence that they cause the very problems they are designed to treat. I am beginning to suspect more than just pure idiotism here...
Finally, I think the even bigger takeaway from the study is that the study found stress to increase levels of serotonin, which then acted as the primary cause of anxiety and depression. So, there you have it plain and simple - stress makes you depressed and taking an SSRI is a great way to mimic this process ad recreate it pharmacologically.

Scientists have discovered why the 'happy hormone' makes people more anxious

"...But, despite being prescribed as a treatment for anxiety, these ‘SSRI’ drugs designed to boost levels of serotonin in the brain had a strange and mysterious side-effect. In some cases, they initially made people feel more anxious or even suicidal. Now a new study, published in the journal Nature, has found that, contrary to the popular view serotonin only promotes goodfeelings, it also has a darker side."

"...Researchers in the US delivered a mild shock to the paws of mice and found this activated neurons that produce serotonin in an area of the brain known to be involved in mood and depression. Artificially increasing these neurons’ activity also appeared to make the mice anxious. Using sophisticate equipment to monitor the mice’s brains, the scientists, from North Carolina University’s medical school, then mapped what they described as an “essential” serotonin-driven circuit “governing fear and anxiety”.

 

[Soren]

I can only imagine how in the future what medicine will think of some of the insane treatments we have now for disease. We are still in many respects in a medical dark ages where dogma trumps rational and evidence. Thank God for the internet, something that the establishment hasn't taken complete control of....yet.

 

[Kingpinguin]

I guess the fact that such studies are finally starting to come out is a good sign. I don't think this will hurt Prozac sales in any way, but at least now doctors may start to discuss with patients the potential dangers of SSRI, which up until last year were considered to be pure myth. It still baffles me how can FDA approve drugs in the face of evidence that they cause the very problems they are designed to treat. I am beginning to suspect more than just pure idiotism here...
Finally, I think the even bigger takeaway from the study is that the study found stress to increase levels of serotonin, which then acted as the primary cause of anxiety and depression. So, there you have it plain and simple - stress makes you depressed and taking an SSRI is a great way to mimic this process ad recreate it pharmacologically.

Scientists have discovered why the 'happy hormone' makes people more anxious

"...But, despite being prescribed as a treatment for anxiety, these ‘SSRI’ drugs designed to boost levels of serotonin in the brain had a strange and mysterious side-effect. In some cases, they initially made people feel more anxious or even suicidal. Now a new study, published in the journal Nature, has found that, contrary to the popular view serotonin only promotes goodfeelings, it also has a darker side."

"...Researchers in the US delivered a mild shock to the paws of mice and found this activated neurons that produce serotonin in an area of the brain known to be involved in mood and depression. Artificially increasing these neurons’ activity also appeared to make the mice anxious. Using sophisticate equipment to monitor the mice’s brains, the scientists, from North Carolina University’s medical school, then mapped what they described as an “essential” serotonin-driven circuit “governing fear and anxiety”.

I had an idea recently about serotonins effect on learned helplessness. Dimethyltryptamine DMT as we know is a very potent serotonin agonist. From what I’ve understood science suspect today that the profound experience som people experience when they have a near death experience is DMT driven. This is because description of DMT experiences and near death experiences tend to be identical to each other. Theres studies of rats being able to produce significant amounts of DMT. Well what happens to rats when they face inescapable death? They give up. My suspicion is that DMT is involved here as a sort of mental protective agent by stimulating serotonin receptors so intensly that you experience this dissolvment into a dream so that you are not present any more experiencing the stress. A true helplessness substance. It literally takes you away accepting that you are about to die. Similair things can be heard in stories of people experiencing severe physical abuse or rape. They tend to give up. Zone out and dissappear into another world or seeing themselves in 3rd person not being able to relate to the tourment. DMT experience similar been described as leaving your body seeing yourself in 3rd person. I think both serotonin and DMT obviously have these same capabilities since they work on the same receptor system. I just think that DMT is much more potent at the serotonin receptor responsible for that state. Which receptor it is im unsure of.

 

[Kunstruct]

I see DMT highly popularized today as a good thing on YT. DMT experience seems to be the most interesting thing to do now.
You can see some talks about receptors on wiki and some sources are being quoted. It binds to dopamine receptors too and the adrenergic receptors too and others.
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine - Wikipedia

 

[Frankdee20]

Just my guess here, but blocking the reuptake of serotonin the way SSRI's do is not the same as having increased serotonin with adequately functioning transporter systems to metabolize it...... I would imaging these drugs are more harmful than say...taking Tryptophan for sleep.

 

[Frankdee20]

I had an idea recently about serotonins effect on learned helplessness. Dimethyltryptamine DMT as we know is a very potent serotonin agonist. From what I’ve understood science suspect today that the profound experience som people experience when they have a near death experience is DMT driven. This is because description of DMT experiences and near death experiences tend to be identical to each other. Theres studies of rats being able to produce significant amounts of DMT. Well what happens to rats when they face inescapable death? They give up. My suspicion is that DMT is involved here as a sort of mental protective agent by stimulating serotonin receptors so intensly that you experience this dissolvment into a dream so that you are not present any more experiencing the stress. A true helplessness substance. It literally takes you away accepting that you are about to die. Similair things can be heard in stories of people experiencing severe physical abuse or rape. They tend to give up. Zone out and dissappear into another world or seeing themselves in 3rd person not being able to relate to the tourment. DMT experience similar been described as leaving your body seeing yourself in 3rd person. I think both serotonin and DMT obviously have these same capabilities since they work on the same receptor system. I just think that DMT is much more potent at the serotonin receptor responsible for that state. Which receptor it is im unsure of.

You can call it a helplessness substance but serotonin serves a purpose.

All of this demonization of Serotonin here does not completely sit well with me, but perhaps that is an oversimplification.