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Question about short term SSRI use and brain chemistry

The article basically says that if you take SSRIs for a long time your brain chemistry will change and you will withdraw when you come off of it, it's not saying anything about permenant changes or anything :) quite the opposite really, it's basically saying you just need to give it time after you withdraw. But it doesn't sound like you're withdrawing? Hope things are going good at the retreat, practice quieting those anxiety thoughts for sure :) btw the article talked of exercise and had a link to the benefits of exercise, I definitely think exercise and meditation are the best combo for fighting depression and anxiety. Good luck <3
 
Naww that's like the lowest dose and 5 times isn't anything to worry about, I actually like quetiapine myself I think it's good for sleep. Not something you wanna use every night for a year though. Anywho, best of luck to you I hope you start to feel better :)
 
Yeah it helped me sleep for a bit but decided to stop using it, my sleep is getting better by itself now!

I took it about 8-10 times I think actually, can't quite remember!
 
Kdem said:
A technical question about that pdf mentioned in this thread: http://ils.unc.edu/bmh/neoref/this.dir.unneeded/schizophrenia/review/tmp/352.pdf

They are particulary interested in the striatum 'While our primary region of interest for 5-HTT occupancy
was the striatum'. In particular reason for this focus on the striatum ? It's really not clear to me.
Click to expand...

They explained the reason in the Methodology section:

Dr. Meyer et al said:
The bilateral striatum was chosen as the primary region with specific binding because [11C]DASB uptake is high and homogeneous in the striatum (11), absolute test-retest differences in 5-HTT binding potential for this region in preliminary analyses were low (approximately 10%) (2), and we know of no reports that major depressive disorder itself influences 5-HTT receptor density or affinity in this region.
Click to expand...
 
The study that Kdem posted initially confused the shit out of me when I first read it haha. I don't really understand neuroscience so I'm not even going to try understand it myself.

Two questions.

1) Does the study imply that changes happen to the brain over a very short period of time, and is it an accurate study?

2) Because I was on the SSRI for a short amount of time, will my brain return to normal faster, if there were even changes at all? My total time on the full 20mg dose was 12 days, I then did a 15 day taper (15mg for four days, 10mg for four days, 5mg for four days, 2.5mg for one day, 2mg for one day, 1mg for one day). I've been off the SSRI for three days now.

Thanks guys! (humam terms might help me a bit more, due to my lack of neuroscience knowledge haha).
 
These things are just speculative for now & you certainly used too little over a too short amount of time to be in any danger for any side effects. You would know and experience them right now otherwise.

But to the topic, I'm still not convinced that blocking dopamine for prolonged time is overall harmless (it might be the least worse solution for cases of severe psychosis, yes, but this doesn't make neuroleptics an one-fits-all solution!). Maybe for some individuals there can be overexcitability happening when too much dopamine is cut off?

It's kind of crazy that doctors hand out scripts for things like lorazepam and quetiapine or even olanzapine 'like candy' but are very wary against any use for ketamine to treat refractory depression, anxiety and pain ... because it's a 'horse tranquilliser' and a 'drug of abuse'. Well, you can immobilise a horse too with a benzodiazepine or an antihistamine, and benzos have at least the same abuse potential as NMDA antagonists. I'd say they are more addictive physically.
 
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Cool, thanks for clarifying dopamimetic. Just to clarify, the low doses of Quetiapine (25mg) don't act on dopamine if I'm correct, it's only higher doses? As far as I know I'm safe in that regard. I took it 8 times intermittently for about a week and a half

Also 1 week of Lorazepam shouldn't have done any harm? I've been off the benzos for three weeks.

As you can tell all the googling kinda fucked with my anxiety a bit. Good thing I stopped doing that.

I'm going to sign off for a while after this question (just looking for reassurance really haha). Gonna stop looking for answers and continue focusing on getting my anxiety in check! But I'll be sure to come back and update you guys.
 
Just to clarify, Lorazepam dosage was 2-3mg daily for 1 week.

I know I sound paranoid as fuck here haha and I apologize, just try to bear with me on that. Just need to give myself peice of mind so I can work with the anxiety.
 
No, the lorazepam hasn't done anything. Benzos aren't that bad after all, it's just that they can induce nasty physical dependency when used for months and such. Low dose use of quetiapine is no problem too. :)

You're dealing with xenobiotics every day from food, air, water, whatever this is just how life is (and we'd have a rotten immune system if things were otherwise). Dosage makes the poison.
 
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Anyone able to shed some light on the above article? Does it sound like BS or is there some truth to it? Wish I didn't read it but oh well.

Either way hopefully it shouldn't affect me, seeing as I only spend under a month on the SSRI.
 
Of course antidepressants "rewire" your brain -- if they didn't do that then you would stay depressed.

There is no reason why reading about this should make you anxious. Everything you do, everything you learn, every memory you retain, rewires your brain.
 
Hi guys. Sorry to steal Jiraya's post here. I'm in a similar situation with him.

I took 15 20mg pills of Prozac, at 10 mg per day most of the days. A couple of days at 20mg. Then weened off.

I had some extreme side effects - almost complete insomnia, extreme anxiety, very high agitation, some hot flushes in my hands and I was so "turned on" that I could not watch a movie/do a Lego toy.

After stopping the pill, I still have quite bad insomnia, high anxiety that i burned my brain, also a bit dizzy, head aches. I also experienced some lower jaw tremor, some eye tremor and twitches when falling asleep.

I feel very tired and most activities are difficult. I almost constantly think that I burned my brain/will have long term issues from this event.

2 months have passed with these symptoms, the tremors are going away.

My background is a slightly anxious healthy young man. Took Prozac for anxiety, during a stressful situation.

What should I expect? Why those horrible side effects?

Thank you kindly for your advice.
 
It all stems from the insomnia that Prozac is known to cause, it's a somewhat normal reaction for the people I've talked to. All of your symptoms will get better as you pay your sleep debt, but it will take a while.

It takes about 1 week of good sleep to make up for one night missed.
 
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