The Hidden Serial Killers by: SPOOK

[Mr.X]

Psychosis Induced by Seratonin and Glucocorticoids


With suicide being the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, averaging 30,000 people a year taking their own lives, it is a perplexity as to why those individuals would destroy not only themselves but also their family members with intense pain and guilt asking themselves all the while, “Why couldn’t I have stopped it?” The nature-vs-nurture debate still rages on in the psychiatric world with many scientists seeing that perhaps the problem lies in between both nature and nurture.

The discovery of seratonin affecting moods has been established nearly two decades ago, but more information is developing every year with its effect on brain chemistry. There is a delicate balance in the human brain and what the psyche can tolerate, but with a checks and balance system, we can cope until the checks and balance system no longer becomes effective. Seratonin alone may not be the primary culprit either, but there could be other important contributions in the neuro-endocrinology of the human. Seratonin is only one of the neurotransmitters in the intricate network of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis. The glucocorticoids produced within this axis from the adrenal glands serve a very important function in the stability of the mood and coping with stress. For instance, cortisol prepares the body for stress by increasing blood sugar concentration, increasing the heart rate, and inhibiting an overreaction of the immune response to elevated stress.

Seratonin levels observed in suicide victims compared to those that have died from natural causes are uniquely varied, but most certainly at odds with the healthier brain chemistry. Those that die by suicide are typically suffering from some form of depression or schizophrenia, but the anatomical and chemical changes among these victims occur in two brain regions: the orbital prefrontal cortex and the dorsal raphe nucleus of the brain stem. The physiological anomaly occurs when the dorsal raphe nucleus sends less than normal amounts of seratonin to the orbital prefrontal cortex. As bodybuilders, one other neurotransmitter that most would prefer to block in order to prevent catabolism of muscle mass is cortisol. Without the cortisol’s action in a depressive episode from reduction of the action of seratonin, it becomes far more difficult to cope with the stress of depression.

Sex hormones such as testosterone, estradiol, and other synthetic androgens and anabolic agents can affect mood dramatically too. Testosterone for instance acts much like an MAO inhibitor to balance and improve mood, and when AAS is used in conjunction with antidepressants, it is much like overdosing on psychoactive drugs radically altering brain chemistry and making a post cycle depression or a depression in the cycle, more difficult to handle, as well as risking a permanent damage to the neuro-endocrine network of hormonal and molecular neurotransmitters. Using antidepressants while using anabolics is very disadvantageous to the person’s psychological health and well-being.

Only a word of advice to the gym rat that uses antidepressants; be very cautious and try to avoid the use of anabolics while using antidepressants and definitely do your research and use every precaution as possible if you choose to use both antidepressants and anabolics.

Spook

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)