Deletion carriers treated with SSRIs exhibited a lower IQ at baseline, but a progressive increase in IQ scores over time with respect to deletion carriers not treated with any medication(FSIQ: 0.53 vs −0.28 points per year; VIQ: 0.15 vs −0.75 points per year; PIQ: 0.89 vs −0.04 points per year; Fig.
Several studies have suggested that antidepressant use is associated with increased risk of developing cognitive impairment and dementia[9–14].
Decreased alertness
Antidepressants can make you feel less alert or able to concentrate. This can happen especially when you first start taking them. This may affect your ability to drive and to do other skilled tasks.
Therefore, long-term treatment with SSRIs seems to have a selective effect on intellectual functioning and the maturation of a specific network comprising frontal and limbic brain regions.
Although memory impairments can be due to depression itself, memory loss appears to be more likely due to SSRI therapy rather than depression symptoms. Serretti et al. showed that using SSRIs even in healthy individuals leads to cognitive impairment [25].
Scientists have long known that SSRIs rapidly increase the available amount of the neurotransmitter serotonin, leading to changes that go well beyond brain chemistry: Research suggests the drugs help reverse the neurological damage associated with depression by boosting the brain's innate ability to repair and remodel ...
In fact, one study found that the rate of emotional blunting in patients taking antidepressants was an astounding 46%. This state is described as feeling disconnected from the world and your creative mind.
It is well known that harms caused by SSRIs can be long-lasting [18] and there are indications that they can even be permanent, e.g. for sexual disturbances [39, 40]. Withdrawal symptoms are also drug harms, and they can also persist for a long time [18].
It's thought that SSRIs work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter (a messenger chemical that carries signals between nerve cells in the brain). It's thought to have a good influence on mood, emotion and sleep.
During long-term SSRI therapy, the most troubling adverse effects are sexual dysfunction, weight gain, and sleep disturbance.
The Evidence for Personality Changes
Study authors suggested that the SSRI may have altered two key personality traits linked to depression—neuroticism and extroversion—independently of their effect on depression symptoms.
Current treatments for depression do not seem to improve brain fog symptoms, although serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) generally appear to be more effective than SSRIs. One type of SSRI, vortioxetine, seems to have some effect on cognitive symptoms and overall functioning, though.
In fact, such drugs may alter two key personality traits linked to depression -- neuroticism and extraversion -- independently of their effect on depression symptoms. "Medication can definitely change people's personalities, and change them quite substantially," says the lead author of the study, Tony Z.
Fluoxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor or SSRI, which causes an increase in levels of serotonin in the brain. There are suggestions that SSRIs may impair cognitive function such as thinking, memory and concentration as well as affecting behavioural function.
A number of prescription and over-the-counter medications can interfere with or cause loss of memory. Possible culprits include: antidepressants, antihistamines, anti-anxiety medications, muscle relaxants, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, and pain medications given after surgery.
Tranquilizers, antidepressants, some blood pressure drugs, and other medications can affect memory, usually by causing sedation or confusion. That can make it difficult to pay close attention to new things. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist if you suspect that a new medication is taking the edge off your memory.
“If you look at the number of patients who experience an increased risk of dying, committing suicide, going to hospital or otherwise come to serious harm, it appears that SSRIs increase the risk of these severe adverse events,” says Jakobsen.
For people with chronic or severe depression, medication may be needed on a long-term basis. In these cases, antidepressants are often taken indefinitely. That is, in part, because depression is not an illness that can be cured.
Those who took antidepressants in higher doses for a longer time have more intense symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms typically persist for up to three weeks. The symptoms gradually fade during this time. Most people who quit taking their antidepressants stop having symptoms after three weeks.
It's usually recommended that a course of SSRIs continues for at least 6 months after you feel better, to prevent your condition coming back when you stop. However, if you've experienced previous episodes of depression, a 2-year course may be recommended.
Common side effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) can include: feeling agitated, shaky or anxious. feeling and being sick. indigestion and stomach aches.
Clinicians generally recommend staying on the medication for six to nine months before considering going off antidepressants. If you've had three or more recurrences of depression, make that at least two years.
SSRI antidepressants are sometimes associated with emotional blunting. This can also include such symptoms as feeling indifferent or apathetic, being less able to cry and less able to experience the same degree of positive emotion as one normally would.
Many experts believe that SSRIs and SNRIs can cause dulled emotions because they interact with your serotonin levels.
Summary: Antidepressants for major depressive disorder reduce the aversive response triggered by exposure to the suffering of others. Findings suggest antidepressants may lead to impaired empathy of pain perception.