It's a worrying thought. My dad has become much less empathetic and more bitter over the past decade. I'd assumed it might have been the pain that was at least partially responsible, now I'm wondering if its actually the painkillers
Medications that change who we are
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Re: Medications that change who we are
#12An easy but not glamorous course of action to prevent this from happening on a large scale is flushing the notion that taking a pill for everything everytime is A-OK out of Western culture.
The average American is on ~1 prescribed pain killer and usually has access to several other over the counter opioids. People take incredibly potent whatevers against the mildest allergies to prevent having reddish eyes. A pill to take the edge off, a pill to calm down. Kids who are not firmly in the right area of every imaginable performance bell curve at age 7 get a whole palette of medicine against fictional anger issues, concentration issues, learning issues, anxiety issues.
I am glad that the topic of psychological side effects is gaining traction. Personally, I have always felt that taking any medicine is most likely going to be a trade-off against side effects we do not really understand yet. Keeping this in mind, one can make a much more sensible decision whether or not to take a pill. If we get this notion back into the head of people it would help a lot IMO.
Re: Medications that change who we are
#13Intra-system communication and control isn't limited to the brain. The gut for example, plays a part. What's concerning about this article is that the researchers (?) we're not open to the possibility.
i believe this is taking a little bit too far. it’s about actually measuring/quantifying the effects. when this is hard/really expensive to do I’m sure the decision not to pursue it is made at several levels. in research (and especially in cutting edge research) you don’t get to explore everything and you have to carefully pick and choose what you do if you want to be around more than a few years.
Re: Medications that change who we are
#14Tangentially (and anecdotally), not long ago I seem to have contracted what seems like a flu (or the like), and I remember feeling very healthy, social and unusually well—almost high—most of the day right until my brain went foggy and fever started.
In hindsight, I did not behave quite like myself that day, especially considering I felt somewhat overworked the preceding week.
This prompted me to first draw the analogy with taking and withdrawing from a substance, and then to imagine a possibility of some future human-made flu-like virus that preserves the incubation stage effects and lacks the “conventional” symptoms. Like a contagious mood boost, contractable for free by air!
Re: Medications that change who we are
#15Probably all that's going through the stomach has one effect or another... Ever watched kids behaviour before and after sugary and non-sugary meals?
https://www.livescience.com/55754-does-sugar-make-kids-hyper...
There seem to be a bunch of studies indicating that it is not the sugar that affects the behavior
Re: Medications that change who we are
#16I am very curious about how transgender HRT affects personality. In a sense, HRT is supposed to change who one is, but the personality changes people undergo on it seem underappreciated and not really understood or studied clinically. At least I have not been able to find a published study specifically about about how HRT changes personality. I think not all of it can be attributed to decreased gender dysphoria or people "coming out of their shell" and being able to live and socialize as who they want to be after transition.
If I had to make a $100 bet today on what future research will find, I would wager that
1. FtM HRT reduces Big Five neuroticism despite increasing aggression. The effect is permanent and persists after the person's "second puberty" induced by HRT is over. It affects beliefs about how society should function. To a degree of approximation, it makes transmen more conservative or right-wing than they were before the treatment.
2. MtF HRT does not have the opposite effect to the above (but it may, and probably does, have other effects). Edit: The opposite effect on neuroticism and sociopolitical beliefs. It decreases aggression.
Re: Medications that change who we are
#17Medication is just a tool, it must be used with care and intelligence.
Re: Medications that change who we are
#18The world is in the midst of a crisis of over-medication, with the US alone buying up 49,000 tonnes of paracetamol every year – equivalent to about 298 paracetamol tablets per person
Shocking, I knew it was bad but this is madness.
Re: Medications that change who we are
#19I’d be curious to hear the experiences of people who take/have taken some of these drugs such as L-dopa. With alcohol, I feel different but I don’t feel like a different person. Is it like that, or is there a larger feeing of difference?
I've took various antidepressant (SSRI/SNRI/SARI) medications over the course of my life and some minor & major tranquilizers. Some alone, some in combination. Heck, during some time I even mixed them with psychoactive instances like LSD/amphetamines. I doubt that it changed who I am, but it changed on how I act. Well, of course it depends on definition of who we are to start with. They certainly affect on how do you…
the experiences you have make who you are. if a drug changes the way you behave it will change how you experience things. so depending to what you are exposed to, it can definitely change who you are.
an extreme example for environmental factors radically changing people’s behavior is lead poisoning.
Re: Medications that change who we are
#20It's a worrying thought. My dad has become much less empathetic and more bitter over the past decade. I'd assumed it might have been the pain that was at least partially responsible, now I'm wondering if its actually the painkillers
It could also be the pain itself. My dad’s Parkinson’s and congestive heart failure did the same to him long before medicines were involved.