Posted by lostforwards on November 10, 2004, at 13:10:45
In reply to Re: Ramble On., posted by linkadge on November 10, 2004, at 10:57:34
I'm not saying these medications shouldn't be used to treat depression. I'm saying they have side-effects. That very high serotonin levels have a down side. You'll be able to make it up to the top of the social ladder but what about love? According to some things I've come across you might be in trouble.
According to helen fisher: "Of course, serotonin-enhancing medications blunt emotions -- that's the point."
This is your brain in Love
http://www.sophists.org/article146.html
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Love at RiskAt a different APA forum, "Sex, Sexuality, and Serotonin," Dr Fisher warned that antidepressants may jeopardize romantic love. As well as high dopamine and norepinephrine, she said, romantic love is characterized by low serotonin. Low serotonin would explain the obsessive thinking attached to romantic love. In her MRI study, her subjects reported that they thought about their loved one 95 percent of the day and couldn’t stop thinking about them. This kind of obsessive thinking is comparable to OCD, she said, also characterized by low serotonin.
Serotonin-enhancing antidepressants, she said, blunt the emotions, including the elation of romance, and suppress obsessive thinking, a critical component of romance. "When you inhibit this brain system," she warned, "you can inhibit your patient’s well-being and possibly their genetic future."
These antidepressants also inhibit orgasm, clitoral stimulation, penile erection ("the entertainment system, in my business"), and deposit of seminal fluid. From an anthropological perspective, a woman who can’t get an orgasm may fail to distinguish Mr Right from Mr Wrong. As one woman on an SSRI confided to her: "I thought I no longer loved my husband." In a study in press, women on SSRIs rated male faces as more unattractive, a process she calls "courtship blunting."
Seminal fluid contains dopamine and norepinephrine, oxytocin and vasopressin, testosterone and estrogen, and FSH and LH. Without an orgasm, said Dr Fisher, men lose the ability to send courtship signals. Said one man, who lost his motivation and self esteem as a result, "I just stopped dating."
Ironically, because antidepressants inhibit depression, patients may lose their ability to send an honest clear signal for social support and (for those with mild depression) lose the necessary insight to make hard decisions (the failure of denial factor).
Dr Fisher said she didn’t want psychiatrists to stop prescribing serotonin-enhancing antidepressants for their patients, but did stress the need to take the love-relationship picture into account.
Source: http://www.mcmanweb.com/love_lust.htm
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Has the Romance Gone? Was It the Drug?
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040504/ZNYT04/405040351/1002/BUSINESS*************************************
"..antidepressants that helped you get over your last romance might keep you from finding a new one..."
"When we fall in love, dopamine and norepinephrine levels rise, and serotonin levels fall. Taking SSRIs brings up the serotonin level and suppresses dopamine. That could inhibit romantic love.
Fisher says, "Long-term use could jeopardize people's ability to fall in love, to stay in love, or even to feel attachment for the partner they've got."..."
The complex chemistry of love
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/02/13/Floridian/The_complex_chemistry.shtml*********************************
Too High for Love?
( second article )
http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/society_culture/sex_and_schopenhauer.htm****************************
So is all this bull or is there some truth to it? I believe there's truth to it and I think this topic is underappreciated and ignored.
poster:lostforwards
thread:413480
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041108/msgs/414266.html