Antidepressant medications taken by roughly 7% of American adults cause profound personality changes in many patients with depression, far beyond simply lifting the veil of sadness, a study has found.
Researchers saw strong drops in neuroticism and increases in extroversion in patients taking antidepressants, two of five traits thought to define personality and shape a person’s day-to-day thoughts and behavior. The findings are striking, researchers said, because psychologists have long thought that such fundamental traits are moorings of an adult’s personality that shift very little over a lifetime…
Those given placebo pills reported early improvements in their depressive symptoms almost as great as those reported by those on medication, but their underlying personalities “didn’t budge,” said Northwestern’s Tang. And their relief from depressive symptoms was briefer and more muted than the improvement of those on medication or cognitive therapy. They were given the antidepressant if their condition failed to improve after eight weeks.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member