SSRI?s and Serotonin antagonists

[Ripplyuk]

Could anyone explain to me what the difference is between these types of drugs? Or are they the same thing?

I?ve been prescribed Pizotifen (aka Sandomigran) which has turned me into an irritable, angry, lethargic grump. I?ve read that it is a serotonin antagonist. Will an SSRI cause the same effect? I?m totally ignorant about these things and this drug seems to have fried my brain completely, so if someone could ?explain like I?m 5yo? I?d very much appreciate it.

 

[Hodor]

When a neuron releases serotonin, the serotonin transporter is responsible for taking it back into the cell so it can be re-used. By inhibiting this "re-uptake" of serotonin to a certain extent, the serotonin will linger in the synapse a little longer, leading to more serotonin receptors being activated.

A serotonin antagonist, on the other hand, blocks your receptors from being activated by serotonin.

While it would be a gross oversimplification to say that the effects of an SSRI and a serotonin antagonist are diametrically opposed (there are wayyy too many receptor subtypes, feedback mechanisms, signaling pathways, autoreceptors and so on and so forth [...] involved) I think we can safely say that there is little reason to assume that serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin receptor antagonists would necessarily produce the same or even similar effects.