When new drugs come to market they are granted a license by the government based on a very narrow view of the medicines effects. For instance, whilst drug firms have proven that SSRIs such as Prozac (fluoxetine) have an effect on helping patients with depressive symptoms, long term retrospective s at the point of the medicine being granted a license the long term, 5 to 10 year effects have not been properly studied. Only in retrospect can these medicines studies have shown they have a lot of other unintended effects as well. Prozac, one of the first SSRIs to be launched onto the US market was released in 1988 and now has over 3 decades of patient data to look back on and analyse.
One retrospective study conducted in 2010, looked at how SSRIs might affect people’s personality in the long run as the medicine has been shown to alter the concentration of a key neurotransmitter serotonin. The reason for this is that it has been found that neurotransmitters instead of working like a golden bullet on one aspect of the mind such as regulating depression work in synergy to maintain a whole host of characteristics. By just changing one instruments volume in the neurotransmitter symphony of self can put people on a very different path in your life. Serotonin has been shown to selectively influence moral judgment and behavior through effects on harm aversion1. Furthermore, another very popular set of medicines the statins has shown to potentially do the opposite, i.e. instead of increasing the the concentration of serotonin like what the SSRIs do they decrease their concentration. This has led to a significant association between low or lowered cholesterol levels and violence is found across many types of studies2.
This example is one of many retrospective studies showing the long term unintended personality changes caused by medicines, others include:
- Heartburn pills Among the most commonly used drugs in the world, proton pump inhibitors used to treat heartburn and acid reflux have been linked with a greater risk of developing depression, particularly among the elderly. They interfere with the absorption of vitamin B12, a nutrient that produces chemicals that affect our thinking.
- Asthma and arthritis drugs Corticosteroids such as prednisone can save lives – their powerful anti-inflammatory effect treats asthma, allergies and rheumatoid arthritis. But they can also cause depression, mania and ADHD, because they act on areas of the brain that regulate serotonin and dopamine – our ‘happy’ hormones.
- Parkinson’s drugs A 2010 study showed 17 per cent of people on dopamine agonists – used to treat shaking and other physical symptoms of Parkinson’s – experience ‘impulse control disorder’, from excessive shopping to uncontrollable sexual urges. In 2011 a married father of two sued the manufacturer of one of these drugs, saying it turned him into a gambling and gay sex addict, which led to him being raped and attempting suicide eight times. He won a six-figure payout.
- Antibiotics Overuse can make antibiotics less effective at treating infection – and a 2015 review of UK medical records linked repeat courses of antibiotics to increased anxiety and depression. It’s thought this may be down to their effect on bacteria in our guts, which interact with our brain chemistry.
References
1Crockett MJ, Clark L, Hauser MD, Robbins TW. Serotonin selectively influences moral judgment and behavior through effects on harm aversion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Oct 5;107(40):17433-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1009396107. Epub 2010 Sep 27. PMID: 20876101; PMCID: PMC2951447, accessed on 21st January 2022 via: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20876101/
2 Golomb BA. Cholesterol and violence: is there a connection? Ann Intern Med. 1998 Mar 15;128(6):478-87. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-128-6-199803150-00009. PMID: 9499332., accessed 21st January 2022 via https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9499332/
