Paxil - SSRIs and Cellular Effects
Paxil and other drugs in the SSRI class work because they do a specific thing and do it very well: They prevent the brain from reabsorbing the mood-elevating chemical serotonin, leading to an overall increase in someone's sense of well being. Thus, the general perception is that they work by stopping people from becoming unhappy.
However, recent research has brought this matter into question. Previously, a study was announced that suggested Paxil and related medicines might actually be altering the fundamental personality of the person, rather than simply treating a symptom. A further study recently conducted may well bear this out.
Researchers at the Lewis-Seglig Institute recently performed a study on the effect of a massive dose of Zoloft, a similar SSRI to Paxil, on yeast cells. The cells that survived the exposure were demonstrated to have been changed at a certain level by exposure to the drug.
This suggests that SSRIs such as Paxil and Zoloft may affect the body in multiple ways, and have several different paths by which they elevate a patient's mood and help them overcome depression. This news is, of course, good — more knowledge means that the medicines' effects can be better understood and refined. However, there is also room for caution and consideration about the results.
Currently, there are a number of lawsuits pending about the potential link of SSRIs and their sister class, SNRIs, to the formation of suicidal thoughts in the young and to the development of birth defects in the children of women who took antidepressants while pregnant. Many of the defenses against these accusations state that there is no clearly-demonstrated causal link between the medicines and these undesirable effects. However, studies such as these raise the point that we don't know all there is to know about this class of medicines, and that science may yet demonstrate the case more conclusively.
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