Posted by Alexanderfromdenmark on April 8, 2009, at 8:59:08
In reply to Re: SSRI's and acetylcholine, posted by desolationrower on April 8, 2009, at 8:15:37
> > Also, you can google, SSRI's may tharwt the quest for love. Or something like that anyway. I was only on lexapro for approx 1 year, and I'm now 9 months off and I still have anhedonia, constant fatigue, low free testosterone levels and lowered levels of t3. So this so called antidepressant as permantly killed my ability to experiencé emotions, killed off my manly hormone which has made me more or less impotent and i've lost muscle mass and gained fat, and lowered my thyroid function.
> >
>
> i'm hardly a fan of ssris, but depression and fat gain can also cause anhedonia (not fat gain on this one), fatigue, low T, and low t3, and theres more evidence of this connection than there is for post-use ssri effect. of course wellbutrin would help with that in any case.
>
> -d/r"Baseline TSH correlated strongly with response to treatment as measured by change in Ham-D scores (r = 0.64, p = 0.003). Low TSH values correlated with greater improvement in depressive symptoms. Thyroid hormone levels decreased with treatment, but these decreases did not correlate with clinical improvement.
Conclusion""With antidepressant treatment, the most common change in thyroid hormones is a decrease in T4 and free T4 without a significant reduction in TSH."
http://www.mhsanctuary.com/rx/testos.htm
"Twelve men and eight women were evaluated. Eight men had subnormal free testosterone levels, two additional men had borderline low levels. Six women had subnormal levels of free testosterone. The average age of male subjects was 50.5 years. The male ASEX mean score was 20 with a mean free Testosterone of 13.5 pg/ml. The laboratory range of free Testosterone was 16-33 pg/ml. The average age of female subjects 39.6 years; female ASEX score was 20, and the mean free Testosterone level was 0.8 pg/ml. (normal range 0.8 - 3.0 pg/ml). (Laboratory ranges were modified according to standardized norms for age; average free testosterone levels decline slightly with increasing age.) Table #1 summarizes the data on all of the subjects in the study. Prolactin levels were above normal in only two subjects (one male, one female), both of whom were also found to have sub-normal levels of free testosterone. All of the other subjects had normal Prolactin levels. Thyroid stimulating hormone was found to be normal in all subjects."
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=518867
"Chronic treatment with fluoxetine (Prozac) has been shown to cause persistent desensitization of 5HT1A receptors even after removal of the SSRI in rats.[25] These long-term adaptive changes in 5-HT receptors, as well as more complex, global changes, are likely to be mediated through alterations of gene expression.[26][27][28][29][30] Some of these gene expression changes are a result of altered DNA structure caused by chromatin remodeling,[31][32] specifically epigenetic modification of histones[33] and gene silencing by DNA methylation due to increased expression of the methyl binding proteins MeCP2 and MBD1.[34] Altered gene expression and chromatin remodeling are also involved in the mechanism of action of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).[35][36]Because described gene expression changes are complex, and can involve persistent modifications of chromatin structure, it has been suggested that SSRI use can result in persistently altered cerebral gene expression leading to compromised catecholaminergic neurotransmission and neuroendocrine disturbances,[11] such as decreased testosterone levels[37], reduced sperm counts[38], and reduced semen quality with damaged sperm DNA[39]. However, without detailed neuropsychopharmacological, pharmacogenomic and toxicogenomic[40] research, the definitive cause remains unknown."
That last quote is from wikipedia, which may seem a little untrustworthy, but the sources from this statement are primarily from pubmed and thus not wholly untrustworthy.
I have no definitve evidence that the SSRI's caused me this misery, but I think the fact that my current problems only started on the SSRI's and have persisted after the ssri's and that I have blood tests revealing low free free t3, high tsh and low free testosterone is more than adequate evidence in my case. There's also thousands of people with the PSSD syndrome and I'm pretty sure that adequate blood tests would only yield similar evidence.
Before SSRI's I could run 10 km almost every day and was an active sportsmen(mainly to fight depression), yet know I feel like i am dying if I run only 3 km and i'm left iwth a fatigued and aching body for days, which I suppose is because of the low free testosterone wihch is an anabolic steroid.
Also don't forget that they give SSRI's to sexual offenders. As such the SSRI's decrease vigilance, motivation and libido. I couldn't think worse long term solution to treat depression. As such a decrease in thyroid hormones and testosterone in young males like me can only be described as rapid aging.
I don't dispute that some people are helped the SSRI's but I find psychiatry a dangerous profession and starting psychiatric treatment seems wholly a gamble. A gamble which I have lost and must now pay dearly for in a look time to come.
poster:Alexanderfromdenmark
thread:888028
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090408/msgs/889428.html