There’s a ton of different SSRI’s (Cipralex, Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil, etc) and it’s widely known that people tend to respond better to one SSRI over another.
What confuses me is that SSRI’s all do the same thing on a physiological level, right? They all prevent the re-uptake of serotonin. Therefore, my understanding is they all work by increasing the person’s serotonin levels. So what makes some people respond better to one SSRI over another if they all do the exact same thing to your brain?
I understand why an SSRI might work better for somebody than a SNRI or MAOI, and it’s because they function differently and target different neurotransmitters. But why would one SSRI help somebody over another SSRI?
Help it make sense
In: 1
Several factors. The drugs have differences in their structures, which will alter how they are absorbed, distributed and metallised in your body. People have slight variances in the enzymes and protein transporters, which will mean slight differences in how they react to drugs.
This is also true for the serotonin reuptake transporter itself. Slight variations in DNA will cause slight differences in the structure, which will affect how well different variations of SSRi’s are able to have their effect on them.
Even though they are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, they aren’t entirely selective. They still have some effect on other receptors, just to a much smaller extent.
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