LA Times: Antidepressants linked to major personality changes

[marmar]

Antidepressants linked to major personality changes
A study finds steep drops in neuroticism and increases in extroversion among patients taking Paxil. Such traits had been believed to shift very little over a lifetime.

By Melissa Healy

December 8, 2009


Antidepressant medications taken by roughly 7% of American adults cause profound personality changes in many patients with depression, far beyond simply lifting the veil of sadness, a study has found.

Researchers saw strong drops in neuroticism and increases in extroversion in patients taking antidepressants, two of five traits thought to define personality and shape a person's day-to-day thoughts and behavior. The findings are striking, researchers said, because psychologists have long thought that such fundamental traits are moorings of an adult's personality that shift very little over a lifetime.

The medications would seem to relieve depression by chemically altering brain processes that spawn negative thoughts rather than just alleviating symptoms associated with a depressed state, said Northwestern University psychologist Tony Z. Tang, the lead author of the study.

The findings, published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, could have significant implications for depression treatment, researchers not connected with the study said.

It is unclear how long-lasting the changes in personality are, the authors said. But the study found that patients whose personalities shifted the most were less likely to relapse. And they said that monitoring those altered traits could be a useful, early gauge of whether a medication is working and how probable a recurrence would be. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-antidepressants8-2009dec08,0,433635.story

[Dora]

1. I can attest to that.

The first time I took Paxil, I experienced a profound release from anxiety and a corresponding increase in social confidence.

The next two times weren't so effective, however, and were unpleasant. It was the wrong medication for what was happening to me at the time (cognitive/behavior therapy would have been more effective), and I experienced sleep disruption, twitches, sexual dysfunction, insane amounts of yawning, and weight gain.

[TrogL]

3. I still haven't fully recovered from Paxil

although some of the permanent side effects (clenching, sexual dysfunction, involuntary mouth movements) may have also come from Effexor.

In my area, it's almost impossible to find affordable cognative therapy - only pill-pushers are paid for.

[pscot]

5. Pharma certainly seems to wag

the health care reform dog. Theirs was the first deal the administration cut.

[yurbud]

10. are those the only two you've tried?

[endless october]

2. i've been on several medicines.

when i was younger, i decided to try to find a good treatment for my OCD. zoloft had a mild effect for a minute. wellbutrin nuked me enough that i had almost two days with no symptoms. however, both gradually wore off and i was left with the nuked feeling but few of the anti-anxiety benefits. i did try one other combination of medicines as well and only lasted a day on them. probably should have stuck it out, but i felt like my head was a bell and someone had rung it.

i might try medicine again in the future. so far, though, the side effects weren't worth the benefit. not to mention you can't have a drink while taking those medications without risking your life. that's not a deal breaker for me, but i do enjoy having a drink now and then.

[pscot]

4. Paxil may be highly effective

but it is also apparently highly addictive. Withdrawal is a long, potentially difficult process. Other side effects include a statistically significant increase in suicidal tendencies. Not recommended for teens or pregnant women. Wikipedia has the details. Not to say don't use it. Just know what it is.

[Gman2]

6. Took Paxil after a hit and run bicycle ass left me crippled.

After two weeks, I felt strange. I went into a Baja Fresh, and almost killed everyone inside, with my bare hands. I went to the beach, and spent two weeks reading Deepak Chopra, and meditating. I felt I might not ever recover. That shit is SHIT. All SSRI's should be used like dynomite. Not candy. I literally could have killed all of them. Good thing they didnt screw up my order.

[FirstLight]

7. It SOOOO has to do wih having the "right" meds

I was given Zoloft and it made a bad situation worse... (the abusive husband and the stress of our life was the ral reason i was freaking out, thank you....NOT postpartum depression ugh.)
... and zoloft made me have thoughts that were clearly "not mine" if i can define them at all. I wasn;t wholly suicidal or homicidal...but the desperation and feelings and statements that would come out of my mouth were just NOT personality related to who I was at my core. I knew that, even at the time it was happening. that was a creepy thought proces to watch WHILE it is happening, for sure.

I ended up weaning myself off the meds and getting out of the situation, pulled myself out of the gutter andwith LOTS of suport & therapy, even made a stab at a pretty good life for me & my kids after all.

then i started to slip again, this was a pattern i knew in my life where i just couldn't seem to "keep it toghether" without hitting a wall. For me it showed up in physical symptoms. I would get sick and then not want to re-engage with life. i would feel horribly ill like everything was hurting and i couldn't MOVE. it took another year of struggle (and finding a good doctor who looked at my history and other chronic issues holistically) before i was given Cymbalta. which helped the pain factor for me right away and yes, it changed my personality. I was able to differentiate between living in this blanket of pain for years and the abiity to just live my life without the cloud. Then i was able to take control of my other underlying health issues, get healthier in THAT respect and move on... Now i am taking steps to fel more successful in my other pieces of life, taking each one piece at a time. I have been abe to complete a school program when i have never felt like i 'finished' anything in my life before. i am able to be a better parent because being able to have a healthy body is important to DO-ing so many things.
When i have a bad day, it is just a bad day...not a bad month. when i have a physical issue i can addres it specifically rather than feel like my whole body has turned against me. I know the difference between having a pms hormonal time and being in a constant state of agitation and fuzzy thinking, etc.

depression is a really weird thing and i think it is experienced diferently for different people. I am a HUGE advocate for therapy and self improvement ...so i have really made it my goal to grow & learn and be a better person from all this. Some people would rather hide behind a diagnosis or play victim or just take whatever life throws them - (no right or wrong) - it just is the way some folks are.
But if you can get out from under the cloud - and have a shot at feeling like your life is 'normal' - of course it will change your personality! sometimes that can be just as good as winning the lottery...you can achieve things and take risks and begin really LIVING. it's like giving someone a second chance who has been walking around feeling terminal with no chance at recovery...

huge difference, and i am glad for it

[juno jones]

8. It's been observed for awhile.

One of my current reading crop is 'Talking Back to Prozac'. One of the reasons the doc (Peter Breggin) who wrote it did so was because of the personality changes he was seeing in a percentage of patients who took it.

I've had my own adventures with a neighbor who would take paxil and terrorize his wife.

While I acknowledge these drugs work for some people, I think there has to be more oversight and care in their administration, such as limiting the prescribing to psychiatrists, using them in adjunct to talk therapy at least once a week if not more, and possibly even hospitalization of some sort for observation during the initial course of the drugs, since so many problems are apparent from the git-go but people aren't always cognizant that it's the drug talking and not their own brain. Simply having a GP hand one some pills that are supposed to 'cheer one up' is clearly not an option with these substances.

[FirstLight]

12. And yes, there should be more oversight and therapy available...

Sometimes i wonder if it is just some social refusal for people to take responsibility for their issues and choose to get THROUGH them! ...However, I don't mean to cound callous either. There is a social stigma even now about seeing a 'shrink'...so many are discouraged to dig deeper or look at their issues, many others don't know where to start, and some lives are such tragedies, maybe no amount of meds can help.

The only reason I am relatively sane after the crap I have been through in my life is because i SOUGHT out the meditation classes and the doctors in the medi-CAL clinic. There was no follow up. I had to find the doctor that would see me every time and help me with my chronic issues and understand my holistic-take on things and my need to find other ways of treating my chronic physical issues. Not just knee jerk and tell me I am depressed because I have strep throat. (and oh yes, i have had my share of the incompetent bastards who gave me those kinds of observations.) I have HAD to be determined and not give up on my will to live. Thank GAWD that i was able to be a survivor type and choose to find the therapy, etc...

There are far too many folks out there on meds that should not be administere without supevision of some kind. and for all the Pharma $ that is there...why is there such little funding for our county mental health facility? Why was i only able to get a handful of appts with a therapist - and then told that one on one was not longer funded, and i could come to "group therapy" with people who were on lithium, etc... not my cup of tea, thanks. Not only that, but the therapist told me in session that i was really "too functional" to be considered for longer than 6 months tops of therapy. And yet I couldn't hold a job and was on the brink of a nervous breakdown (or so it felt in MY body at the time).

I am grateful every day that i chose to do things like yoga and drumming and dance and art and FIND my therapy, and be able to make it work for ME. I wish anyone who is in that cloud could have the ability to find their inner therapist, and an outer expression for it too. ;)

[juno jones]

15. And there lies the dilemma.

From what I've read, the talking cure really does much more for most people than drugs, but it has become one of the least availible options due to cost.

I admit I self-medicate and self-therapy. Marijuana smooths my mood swings and meditation and excercise (hiking) do a lot to keep me from falling into the abysses that my chronic depression can occasionally throw at me. I wish I could afford a therapist tho. I'd love to go to a jungian therapist who uses horoscopes and dream work to really work thru the knots in my psyche that my own practice uncovers but is too subjective to change. Someday, it'll happen. In the meantime, keep on keeping on...:hi:

[FirstLight]

19. Jungian therapy...

While I'm a big proponent of therapy...i think the traditional approach is often not helpful. I hate stirring up shit from my past and then having to wait a week to go back and never resolving it, because you are usually on to the next issue.
I have been blessed to have a Mentor who i also use as a therapist, she is more eclectic and comes from the Transpersonal angle...and it is much more valuable for ME to work on issues as they are coming up, rather than to focus on the past only.

Meditation and the outdoors are vital as well. Living in the mountains is more for my mental happiness than anything else. I can't handle the energy of the city, i need to be in a place where there are more TREES than POEOPLE! lol

I am also a bleiever that many of us self medicate...I may be taking anti-depressants, but i am not giving up my maryjane either. For me it is a grounding and earth connection thing, not about getting high. and yes, helps my body relax on a different level too.

anywhoo- my 2 cents and then some!

[juno jones]

20. More trees than people!

:toast:

For me add large bodies of water as well, LOL!

I'm originally from the midwest, but I've found that big trees, mountains and ocean (and muckin' big lakes) help me as much as anything else in this world. Watching the changes of season as I hike my fave trails is theraputic beyond belief.

I suspect the disconnect that most people have with the natural world is at the root of much of the general angst and depression.

[Blue_Tires]

21. +1 on more oversight and observation

[Shallah Kali]

9. Mood Gym by an Aussie University offers free online CBT basic training

http://www.moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome

It is free & anonymous. While it won't replace face to face therapy and/or medication it might be a useful compliment...

[juno jones]

16. Thank you. n/t

[FirstLight]

11. K& R for an important issue & discussion :)

I would like to hear more from others here at DU...please don't hold back...!

[Miss Authoritiva]

13. Some drugs do strange things to some people

I've known people who've taken antidepressants for depression or anxiety or OCD or even neurologic disorders and, for them, the drugs were like manna from Heaven. Obviously, other people have problems with the drugs. I once took Claritin for a bad head cold and within 40 minutes experienced such bad chest pain I thought I was having a heart attack. Turns out, some people experience chest pain if they take Claritin. My favorite side effect of all time was from oral prednisone prescribed for a bad skin rash: total euphoria for two weeks. Lovely.

[Aragorn]

14. simple answer

known to psychiatric researchers for >20 years: most depression is manic-depression.

[dreamnightwind]

17. K & R

so others can see this thread, interesting stuff here.

[steven johnson]

18. Cosmetic psychiatry has finally been revealed

Better living through chemistry. A real 'blue pill'.

Cypher regretted taking the red pill whereas Neo did not. The terms blue pill and red pill have become a popular metaphor for the choice between the blissful ignorance of illusion (blue) and embracing the sometimes painful, sometimes pleasant, truth of reality. I know I am very fond of my unrealistic expectations and irrational exuberance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redpill

December 8, 2009 | 4:56 pm

Peter D. Kramer, the psychiatrist and author of the path-breaking 1993 book "Listening to Prozac," said in an interview today that he felt "vindicated" by a newly published study ("Personality Change During Depression Treatment," by Tony Z. Tang et al) finding that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants cause dramatic personality changes in depressed patients who take them.

"It's hard not to feel justified" in the view--offered long before it became fashionable--that antidepressants now taken by 7% of American adults do more than lift depression: They nudge underlying personalities--even those of healthy people--into brighter, more appealing territory, and in so doing, raise ethical concerns about "cosmetic psychiatry."

The study offers evidence that people who are unassertive, pessimistic, prone to worry and prefer to be by themselves or in small groups are more likely to develop depression, and that, when they take SSRIs, those underlying personality traits change more than most peoples' change in an adult lifetime--in the span of 16 weeks. That change in basic outlook not only seems to be the thing that lifts them out of depression; it may even reduce the likelihood that they'll relapse. (You can read our detailed account of the study and its findings here.)

While a group of subjects undergoing cognitive therapy had some of the same effects, they weren't nearly as powerful as those that came from a pill--which in this case was paroxetine, marketed as Paxil.... "It looks like medicine is good for chronic personality traits and cognitive therapy is good for acute illness," he said. Translation: Maybe any of us who are given to sad or worried rumination should be on SSRIs, and then, if we fall into depression anyway, we can get some time-consuming and expensive cognitive therapy. (That DOES sound like a treatment algorithm that would appeal to insurance companies.)


'Listening to Prozac' author feels 'vindicated' by new antidepressant study