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June 10, 2013 — An interesting new report of animal research published in Biological Psychiatry suggests that common antidepressant medications may impair a form of learning that is important clinically.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, commonly called SSRIs, are a class of antidepressant widely used to treat depression, as well as a range of anxiety disorders, but the effects of these drugs on learning and memory are poorly understood.

In a previous study, Nesha Burghardt, then a graduate student at New York University, and her colleagues demonstrated that long-term SSRI treatment impairs fear conditioning in rats. As a follow-up, they have now tested the effects of antidepressant treatment on extinction learning in rats using auditory fear conditioning, a model of fear learning that involves the amygdala. The amygdala is a region of the brain vitally important for processing memory and emotion.

They found that long-term, but not short-term, SSRI treatment impairs extinction learning, which is the ability to learn that a conditioned stimulus no longer predicts an aversive event.

"This impairment may have important consequences clinically, since extinction-based exposure therapy is often used to treat anxiety disorders and antidepressants are often administered simultaneously," said Dr. Burghardt. "Based on our work, medication-induced impairments in extinction learning may actually disrupt the beneficial effects of exposure-therapy."

This finding is consistent with the results of several clinical studies showing that combined treatment can impede the benefits of exposure therapy or even natural resilience to the impact of traumatic stress at long-term follow-up.

The authors also suggest a mechanism for this effect on fear learning. They reported that the antidepressants decreased the levels of one of the subunits of the NMDA receptor (NR2B) in the amygdala. The NMDA receptor is critically involved in fear-related learning, so these reductions are believed to contribute to the observed effects.

Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, commented, "We know that antidepressants play important roles in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders. However, it is important to understand the limitations of these medications so that we can improve the effectiveness of the treatment for these disorders."

Journal Reference:

Nesha S. Burghardt, Torfi Sigurdsson, Jack M. Gorman, Bruce S. McEwen, Joseph E. LeDoux. Chronic Antidepressant Treatment Impairs the Acquisition of Fear Extinction. Biological Psychiatry, 2013; 73 (11): 1078 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.10.012

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130610084140.htm

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I can see this because not long after starting Wellbutrin I started feeling like it would be so much easier to kill myself. I already wanted to but I feel like the medication kind of took away the natural barrier that exists in the human mind that stops you from crossing that line. the wellbutrin kinda took away that line and made it seem like it would just be as simple as taking the next step when youre walking. it made me seem like much less of a big deal and I didnt feel afraid of it at all.

That made me feel really peaceful and happy though and knowing it would be so easy made me feel better than i had in a while.

wellbutrin isn't an ssri, its a totally different kind of drug

 

I'm sure that the drugs are synthed in china because that is the cheapest place to buy them from....it's the American way. Most scientists in the US buy their custom chemicals from china because they are so much cheaper.

and no scientist in an American lab would be asked to make a known chemical that could cheaply be bought from china, they would have this scientist actually doing experiments or trying something new...not making a known compound and wasting time instead of just cheaply buying it.

For research on schedule I compounds in the US, you have to buy them from where the DEA tells you to buy them. You can suggest suppliers, but the DEA has to approve them first. The paper published about the study will tell you how the drugs were acquired.

 

SSRI drugs are, imho, have highotential o be very damaging substances and are casually handed out as a panacea for whatever ails you.
Certainly there are people who have biological, brain chem reasons to be treated w/ ADs. But too often they are given to folks who are going through rough times related to circumstance, not chemical imbalance, and that is bullshit and wrong.
1 friggin Paxil just about sent me to the moon. I'll never take another AD again. Never. Def one of the worst experiences of my life.
-izzy

 

A few days after reading this post, I started researching self hypnosis as possibly a main way to start reordering the damage done by problematic thought processes developed in youth, which stem into the rest of life, and if not challenged, lay rooted.

I have a 20 year history of bipolar-manic depression and have had about 6 hospital admissions during this time. I first tried LSD at 18 and Pot earlier, later on I mistakenly mixed ecstasy when prozac, which was the start of hospital treatment.

I'm only on lactimal now 150mg, but this has only been since 2009, before this I was always on and off ssri's snri's and trycilics, as well as low dose stabilisers. I feel confident that now, if I can stay off AD's, I'm going to be ok, and that I can understand, and develop a genuine comprehension of how stuff work's, which bring's me back to the hypnosis.

I've been getting into meditation properly for about 2 years, but have not yet "applied" thought processes beyond breathing and tuning in to the required state to stabilise the mind, and now I'm understanding the opportunity to actually do something that really works, but adjusting the knackered activity towards using pathways that, as I understand it, do not activate the desire to peg it when a hard time arises. One thing which stood out on the first few pages of this basic hypnosis book, was that the process of preparing to enter the neurological state which allows new information to be place effectively, when the brain is in the theta pattern, that the amygdala is one of the areas which is turned down in activity, which reads to me that it is bypassable, to some extent.

So if this part of the brain can be turned down, which, would be tricky to do in rats, I guess new patterns which evolve from using this method, if applied correctly would alter the core element of the basis of fear, which exists as memory in other areas of the brain, which the amygdala is possibly obstructing when in a state which is damaged.

This part of the brain, at the moment, to me, seems to represent a place where chaos gets its way, so if damaged, it should be left to rest for a while until off the ssri's if possible.

Also,

part of my regime, to stay well includes using reishi powder, chaga, matcha and gynostemma, which are all regulating adaptogens.
I also believe using psilocybin every so often in a controlled and therapeutic way can return the mind to state which is not so involved will repeating conscious activity, towards it's natural state., though real understanding of what your up to and prepared enough for is necessary, which is what I'm trying to do. I wouldn't take LSD again at the moment, because I'm aware that work needs to be done, and self-hypnosis is a way to get started.

 

The part that kills me about these substances more than everything else is the marketing...

It’s completely bogus to have a market of drugs that are metabolites of the previous one that do the same exact fucking shit to acquire a monopoly over the said drug...

This lets them have an economic edge and the older better chemicals get phased out and proclaim to be safer too...

I would love to see Dexamyl, and other sedative hypnotic/stimulant.

I don’t like being introverted... I hate feeling detached from feelings. I vowed to never touch SSRI’s ever again.

It’s psychological poison.

 

I suggest those interested in the adverse effects of using SSRI's to read this: http://ssristories.com/

 

yes

 

ya/

 

why

 

whyo

 

nipplecummer, do you have multiple personality disorder by any chance? Or another fetish for getting your post count up quickly?

 

maybe

 

maybeg

 

hugs not drugs

 

I want to be a bluelighter

 

not

 

a greenlighter

 

scary

 

being

 

a green