eli5-How does medication cause suicidal thoughts?
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The traditional explanation for increased suicidal ideation with antidepressants is that energy/motivation can lift prior to mood, and a bedbound person with a vague desire to die can temporarily become more prone to serious thinking/action before improving further. It’s never been clearly understood, though.
At least one serious researcher I know would argue that it probably involves specific receptors/switches at the cell/ molecule level. Suicidality is often portrayed as the inevitable end point if enough bad things happen, but research suggests it’s really a fairly specific state that certain ingredients like alcohol can aggravate or cause.
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