The red flags raised by the 1990 clinical reports of increased suicidality associated with treatment with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) fluoxetine were followed by anecdotal reports of similar symptoms with other antidepressants of the same class. Recent discussions by Healy have argued in favour of a suicidogenic potential of the SSRIs. This paper reviews the relevant liter...

Previous attempts to identify a unified theory of brain serotonin function have largely failed to achieve consensus. In this present synthesis, we integrate previous perspectives with new and older data to create a novel bipartite model centred on the view that serotonin neurotransmission enhances two distinct adaptive responses to adversity, mediated in large part by its two most prevalent and...

The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have a very favorable safety profile. However, because of the wide use of this drug group, even low-frequency adverse effects become more prevalent. This article reviews 5 of these relatively infrequent adverse medical effects associated with the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secreti...

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are reported to be associated with increased bleeding tendency. While findings of recent studies explain a lot about the pathophysiology of this side-effect, there is a general tendency to discontinue SSRIs as harmful medications. We report two instances of dose-dependent relations between sertraline and bleeding tendency. Bleeding diathesis was a...

BACKGROUND Animal and human studies have reported an association between antidepressant (AD) medication use and breast cancer risk. A population-based case-control study was designed specifically to examine this association among women in Ontario, Canada. METHODS The Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR) identified women diagnosed with primary breast cancer. Controls, randomly sampled from the female...

(Letter to the Editor) SIR, We read with great interest the report by Coleiro et al. [1] describing a pilot study on the tolerability and efficiency of fluoxetine for the treatment of Raynaud's phenomenon. This study confirmed previous case reports suggesting the usefulness of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in the management of Raynaud's phenomenon [2, 3]. Here we describe for ...

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have become the most popular antidepressants over the last decade, largely because they have a better side effect profile than the medications that were widely used previously, the tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). The SSRIs mostly have one main mechanism of action, inhibition of serotonin reuptake. A f...

This report describes a case of bulimia nervosa presenting with atypical features and her treatment response to SSRIs.

Extracts of Hypericum perforatum (St. John's Wort) are widely used for the treatment of depressive disorders and are unspecific inhibitors of the neuronal uptake of several neurotransmitters. Previous studies have shown that hyperforin represents the reuptake inhibiting constituent. To characterize the mechanism of serotonin reuptake inhibition, kinetic analyses in synaptosomes of mouse brain w...

BACKGROUND SSRIs are widely used in the treatment of mental illness for both children and adults. Studies have found a slightly increased risk of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in young people using SSRIs but SSRIs' impact on risk for suicides in youth is not well-established. AIM Is there indication that SSRIs might raise risk for suicide attempts in young people? METHODS We used a...