Brain Awareness Week: your mind on SSRIs

Mental health is a common topic of discussion among college students. Mental illness is becoming something less stigmatized and easier to talk about. However, there is much we talk about that we don’t understand or know much about. For instance – many people have heard about SSRIs, but might not know what they actually are.

Brain Awareness Week, taking place this week, is organized by the Dana Foundation and Society for Neuroscience. It aims to help raise awareness and spread information about brain sciences and the amazing work being done around the world. For our neuroscience project, we hope to understand the impact of SSRIs on connections between neurons (brain cells).

So, what are SSRIs? SSRI stands for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor, and it is a common type of medication used to treat depression and anxiety. Serotonin is a hormone and neurotransmitter and is often called the “feel-good” hormone because it influences emotional well-being and regulation. Reuptake is when a neurotransmitter is absorbed or “used up” so as not to have an abundance of the neurotransmitter after it has been released by a neuron.

A popular theory is that in some patients with certain mental health conditions, serotonin is produced at a lower rate, however, is being used up at the same rate. This leaves the person with a significantly reduced amount of serotonin, leading to emotional distress.

With SSRIs, reuptake can be slowed and reduced so serotonin can continue transmitting signals to influence emotional well-being.

So, we’ve mentioned terms such as serotonin and neurotransmitter, which are essential to understand when talking about SSRI use.

First off, a neurotransmitter is a term used to describe chemicals that transmit information from neuron to neuron. Neurotransmitters can influence the next neuron in line by either stimulating or inhibiting it, which will either cause the information to be stopped or continued. Serotonin is a specific type of neurotransmitter which, as previously mentioned, helps us “feel good” among other functions.

In very simple terms, it is generally theorized that more serotonin allows more efficient interactions between neurons which leads to the person feeling better.

So, using an SSRI is effective in treating depression as it blocks the first neuron from reuptaking the serotonin that is waiting to be picked up by the second neuron in the chain.

This means that the second neuron has a better chance to interact with the serotonin released by the first and make us feel better. This does not work for everyone, however, which is part of the question of our research.

By understanding the scientific processes behind the use of SSRI treatment to treat depression we can see it is a quantifiable problem with a specific solution. By now knowing just the mechanism, we can start to drop the stigmas surrounding the use of SSRIs and other similar treatments.

Our group is intrigued by the use of SSRIs and the smaller, finer details of their impact on connections between neurons.

Our project aims to uncover these connections and potential effects.

By the end of the semester, we hope to use the skills we’ve gained in our Neurobiology class to dive into the research and gain a deeper understanding of the stigmas and treatments of mental illness like depression with the use of SSRIs and how truly effective it is.

Research is still being done to explore the effects (or lack thereof) of SSRIs, and we will continue to explore what this means.

We found our information from sources such as The Mayo Clinic and The Journal of Neuroscience.