# SSRIs

Category: Drugs & Compounds

Also known as: SSRI, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, antidepressant, fluoxetine, sertraline

Serotonin is not the "happy hormone" but a primarily inflammatory and stress-related molecule, and the drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of antidepressants whose clinical effects are widely misunderstood. Ray Peat argued that the…

11 passages · 2 authors · 2011–2023 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/ssris

## Synthesis

**Serotonin** is not the "happy hormone" but a primarily inflammatory and stress-related molecule, and the drugs known as **selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors** (SSRIs) are a class of antidepressants whose clinical effects are widely misunderstood. [Source 1, 6] Ray Peat argued that the foundational myth of SSRIs was a culturally conditioned promotional construction, born from the government's criminalization of psychedelic substances in the 1960s. [Source 6] Because LSD and psilocybin were known to be *anti-serotonin agents* that blocked serotonin's constricting actions on smooth muscle and turned off serotonin nerves in the brain, Peat contended that the drug industry inverted this reality to market serotonin-increasing drugs as the path to sanity, implying that if anti-serotonin agents made you "insane," then products to increase serotonin must be the cure. [Source 6] Georgi Dinkov has extended this historical account, stating that the government needed a compliant population and vicious soldiers for the Vietnam War, so they deliberately sought a drug that did the exact opposite of the anti-authoritarian LSD, leading to the birth of SSRIs despite clinical trial evidence of increased suicide risk. [Source 11]

Peat maintained that the drugs sold as SSRIs do not reliably produce their named effect, and that any genuine antidepressant action occurs by *lowering* serotonin in the long run. [Source 3, 4] He cited a study in which aggressive, vicious dogs were found to have high serotonin; after a month of treatment with an SSRI, the dogs became pleasant and their serotonin had gone down significantly. [Source 3, 4] Peat noted that the first generation of antidepressants, monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, increased adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin, but when their patents expired, the industry selectively attributed their efficacy to serotonin to sell new products. [Source 3] He pointed to **tianeptine**, a serotonin uptake *promoter* that reduces serotonin's activity in the synapse, as a more effective antidepressant with beneficial effects on arthritis, diabetes, and inflammatory conditions. [Source 8] Other anti-serotonin drugs like cyproheptadine, ondansetron, lisuride, and bromocriptine have demonstrated therapeutic value by blocking serotonin's effects. [Source 3, 8]

The biological actions of serotonin are overwhelmingly degenerative and catabolic. Peat detailed that serotonin constricts smooth muscle in the intestine, blood vessels, and uterus, and is known to cause blood clotting, coronary artery spasms, and inflammation. [Source 3, 6] It activates every pituitary hormone, including the ACTH-adrenal stress axis, and **serotonin slows oxidative metabolism**, reducing the brain's use of glucose and oxygen in a pattern characteristic of depression, hypothyroidism, aging, and dementia. [Source 1, 5] Serotonin promotes *aerobic glycolysis*, the inefficient cancer-like metabolism in which lactic acid is produced despite the presence of oxygen, and it reduces cerebral blood circulation. [Source 5] Peat emphasized that serotonin and estrogen have systematically interrelated functions, with estrogen activating mast cells to release histamine and serotonin, contributing to the higher incidence of depression, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and liver disease in women. [Source 9] In Parkinson's disease, anti-serotonin drugs alleviate symptoms while serotonin precursors worsen them, and in autism, serotonin is elevated in the blood of affected children and their relatives. [Source 9]

The chronic use of SSRIs produces a distinct profile of iatrogenic harm. Peat observed that by increasing exposure to serotonin or decreasing adrenaline, these drugs slow the metabolic rate, making it harder to burn calories and leading to weight gain. [Source 2] He identified a well-documented association of SSRIs with **osteoporosis**, explaining that serotonin produced in an inflamed intestine or potentiated by the drugs reaches the bones and interferes with bone metabolism, causing rapid bone loss. [Source 5, 10] The drugs are also associated with sexual malfunction, hair loss, and a lengthening of the heart's QT interval that can cause cardiac arrest. [Source 5] Peat noted that the public is slowly becoming aware of these effects, but the information is always contextualized within the drugs' supposed therapeutic value, even though electroshock therapy—used when SSRIs fail—works only by increasing neurosteroid synthesis at the cost of brain cell death. [Source 5] Dinkov added that Germany's Commission E initially refused to approve Prozac after their own trials showed people killing themselves, and only relented under political pressure while issuing the first black box warning for suicide risk. [Source 11]

Recovery from SSRI use requires a systematic metabolic intervention. Peat stated that high serotonin trains the nervous system to stay in a stress state by activating the pituitary ACTH and adrenal system, creating an inflammatory state in the nerves and body that increases fat production and stress. [Source 7] He advised that breaking this pattern requires restoring a good, intense metabolic rate—increasing cellular energy production, keeping thyroid function up, and keeping estrogen down—and noted that even doing everything right, people seem to take about a year to feel fairly normal again. [Source 7] Eating frequently to avoid running on adrenaline was one of his specific recommendations. [Source 7] The broader context Peat provided is that serotonin, nitric oxide, and ATP spread damage signals through the body in a bystander effect, and that the brain's capillaries treat serotonin as a toxin to eliminate, much like the lungs. [Source 5]

## People also ask

### How do SSRIs actually affect serotonin levels over time?

Peat argued that SSRIs do not reliably increase serotonin as advertised, and any genuine antidepressant effect occurs because they lower serotonin in the long run, citing a study where aggressive dogs treated with an SSRI became pleasant after their serotonin significantly decreased.

### What metabolic damage is associated with chronic SSRI use?

The corpus describes that chronic SSRI use slows metabolic rate, promotes weight gain, and is associated with osteoporosis because serotonin interferes with bone metabolism, along with sexual malfunction, hair loss, and a lengthened heart QT interval that can cause cardiac arrest.

### Why did Peat consider tianeptine a better alternative to SSRIs?

Peat pointed to tianeptine, a serotonin uptake promoter that reduces serotonin's activity in the synapse, as a more effective antidepressant with additional benefits for arthritis, diabetes, and inflammatory conditions, unlike the degenerative effects of serotonin-increasing drugs.

## Related concepts

- [Aging](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/aging/index.md)
- [Albumin](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/albumin/index.md)
- [Antioxidants](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/antioxidants/index.md)
- [Aspirin](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/aspirin/index.md)
- [Beef](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/beef/index.md)
- [Calcium](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/calcium/index.md)

## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Brain "Barriers"

Ray Peat · Interview · Oct 18, 2019

> **Caller:** (36:33) Excellent. Thank you so much, guys.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** (36:35) You're welcome. Okay, so it's 20 to 8 the number if you want to call in, it's 707-923-3911. Dr. Peat expanding his understanding and information of things that we are all misinformed about. And Serotonin is his latest newsletter. We mentioned last month, Dr. Peat, the whole travesty surrounding the SSRIs, their perspective prescription, their over prescription, the suicides resulting from it, and the complicit behavior of pharmaceutical companies as well as political entities and government even for allowing this kind of thing to go unchecked when actually the evidence is there to very much damn the product. And how the whole misinterpretation of serotonin as a happy hormone, how this whole quip, this cliche, is just gripped hold of everybody. And if you talk to anyone about serotonin or melatonin, they will tell you, oh, it improves your sleep or it makes you feel good. I found it so hard to find any information on the Internet about serotonin being anything other than good for you that I was going to get into it during this show about some of the, some of the things that are purported by various entities for serotonin and how, how it seems like there's absolutely nothing wrong with serotonin and serotonin has got the best, the best kind of advertising going for it. But we'll get into that after this next caller because we do have another caller who's called in. So let's take this caller a call away from. What's your question from New York?
>
> **Ray Peat:** (38:12) Can you hear me?

### Source 2 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Weight Gain

Ray Peat · Interview · Feb 15, 2013

> ## Caller: Antidepressants and Weight Gain
>
> **Caller (Southern Humboldt):** One side effect of anti-anxiety and antidepressant drugs is weight gain. Do you know how this works?
>
> **Ray Peat:** If they increase your exposure to serotonin or decrease your adrenaline, they'll slow your metabolic rate and make it harder to burn calories.
>
> **Caller (Southern Humboldt):** I'm reading that there are no conclusive studies relating low serotonin with mental state.
>
> **Sarah Murray:** They aren't even sure how SSRIs work anyway.

### Source 3 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Evidence Based Medicine

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 21, 2018

> ## SSRIs and Serotonin
>
> **Andrew Murray:** I want to talk about specific drugs. The Hippocratic oath says "first do no harm," yet we have the repeated example of SSRIs. These commonly prescribed antidepressants have label warnings regarding the risk of suicide, violence, and homicide. In 2007, the FDA admitted that SSRIs can cause madness at all ages. I found an article from 1960 on cyproheptadine, which is an anti-serotonin agent, discussing how beneficial it was. It seems strange that today we are prescribed SSRIs to block the uptake of serotonin—making it more available—when cyproheptadine, an anti-serotonin agent, showed positive benefits. What is your view on SSRIs?
>
> **Ray Peat:** They talk about different generations of antidepressants. The first generation was the monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors that increased your adrenaline along with dopamine and serotonin. When the patents expired on that first generation, they wanted to sell new products. They had to find reasons to get people to stop those—which often worked very well—and move on to a new product. They said, "Well, it must have been the serotonin increase produced by the first generation," so they came up with a new way to increase serotonin. However, there was a study where they tried to treat vicious dogs by increasing their serotonin, which was supposedly the "serenity and bliss" transmitter. They found that the aggressive, vicious dogs actually had high serotonin. When they gave them the SSRI, their serotonin went down as they became pleasant dogs. So, something which has been sold to millions of people to increase their serotonin actually sometimes does have good effects, but most likely by *lowering* serotonin.

### Source 4 — KMUD Herb Doctors: Serotonin, Endotoxins, Stress

Ray Peat · Interview · 2011

> **Herb Doctors:** And now heart disease and high cholesterol and… And yeah, obesity, related to high blood pressure, cancer and dementia And diabetes have all been on the increase
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah and these are known to be increased by unsaturated fats, and cereals and starches. Exactly the thing that the government has promoted.
>
> **Herb Doctors:** Well hopefully our listeners don’t listen to what the govenerment pro,oete anyway .Getting back to serotonin. What’s the truth?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Well an example of how confused the promotion has been is that one of the major anti-depressants is called a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that supposedly acts increasing by serotonin. They knew that it was a good treatment of viscous dogs and that because it increases their serotonin, but people studying the dogs after a month of treatment with the ssri, found that they were less viscous and that their serotonin had gone down significantly.
>
> **Herb Doctors:** So it actually decreased their serotonin?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah I think the anti-depressants that work are actually in the long run shifting their balance away from serotonin.

### Source 5 — Serotonin, coherence and aging

Ray Peat · Newsletter · 2019

> That does happen, but the synthesis of those defensive steroids is also increased by any injury to the brain (di Michele, et al., 2000).
>
> Electroshock convulsive therapy, which is commonly used when severe depression isn’t relieved after more than a year of drug treatment, also increases the production of those neurosteroids, but at the cost of brain cell death. The public is slowly becoming aware of the association of the SSRIs with obesity, sexual malfunction, hair loss, and osteoporosis, but that information is always put into the context of their supposed therapeutic value.
>
> If the drugs’ only real value is their laxative effect, and the adaptive neurosteroid synthesis that occurs after any brain damage, then it’s clear that the safer antidepressants that are known should be used. Although it’s not reflected in the mass media or the practice of medicine, many studies show that increased serotonin and tryptophan are associated with depression and suicidality, anxiety, aggression, and violence (de Boer and Koolhaas, 2005; van der Vegt, et al., 2003).
>
> The actual properties of the drugs and the serotonin system that they distort should be considered in relation to each of the epidemic conditions, for example their effect of lengthening the heart’s repolarization (QT) interval, which is known to sometimes cause cardiac arrest, in relation to the hundreds of thousands of sudden cardiac deaths that are occurring annually in the US, including tens of thousands of apparently healthy young people. How many of those were using the drugs?
>
> Serotonin slows oxidative metabolism (in many animals it’s involved in preparation for hibernation), and reduces the circulation of blood in the brain (Szabo and Hofmann, 1989; Aleksandrin, et al., 2005). The reduced use of glucose and oxygen by brain tissue characterizes depression, hypothyroidism, aging, and dementia, as well as the effects of serotonin produced by stress or trauma. The lower energy production makes the organism more susceptible to stress.

### Source 6 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Education and Reeducation

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 20, 2019 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcw5siwAhx8

> ## The Serotonin Myth
>
> **Andrew Murray:** I wanted to visit the question of serotonin and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) again. We are told serotonin is the "happy hormone." Could you explain what we are told versus what you understand about its activity?
>
> **Ray Peat:** I have looked at that recently on some of the best-known medical websites, and they are still basically saying the same thing. No one has looked at the critical information in a very public spot. When serotonin was identified chemically in the body, it was seen to constrict smooth muscles—first the intestine, then blood vessels and the uterus. Then it was discovered to exist in the brain. Up into the mid-to-late 60s, people were still looking at the actual research. They saw that things like the ergot family—LSD and related substances—were able to block it and prevent the actions of constricting muscles in all of the known tissues.
>
> **Andrew Murray:** By blocking serotonin?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yes. The main nerves that produce serotonin are just turned off by LSD and psilocybin. But as that was becoming known in the 1960s, the government was also starting to criminalize psychedelic chemicals, which were in the news repeatedly as anti-serotonin agents. When the government criminalized these, the drug companies saw that they could form the basis of drug products. It was in their interest to say that those evil, illegal drugs are anti-serotonin and naturally make you insane, because the "good stuff" which makes you sane is serotonin. That created a foundation of public opinion to build the whole myth on. The government has been creating political myths, and the chemical companies use the government to support their economic sales myths.

### Source 7 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Heart I

Ray Peat · Interview · May 17, 2013

> ## Caller: Recovering from SSRIs
>
> **Caller (Minnesota):** What can a person do to recover from getting off of SSRIs?
>
> **Ray Peat:** I hear that a lot. Basically, it's doing everything you can to restore a good, intense metabolic rate—restore the energy level of cells so that they don't go into the stress state. The high serotonin trains the nervous system to stay in a stress state because serotonin activates the pituitary ACTH and adrenal system. Ultimately, the way to break that pattern is to increase your cellular energy production, lower stress, keep your thyroid function up, and keep the estrogen down.
>
> **Caller:** Is it something that takes quite a long time to recover from?
>
> **Ray Peat:** People seem to take about a year to feel fairly normal again, even doing everything right. The serotonin itself creates an inflammatory state in the nerves and body in general. It affects your whole metabolism, tending to increase fat production and stress. You want to concentrate on keeping your whole body in an unstressed condition. Eating frequently is probably one of the helpful things—not forcing yourself to go on adrenaline.

### Source 8 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Misconceptions relating to Serotonin and Melatonin

Ray Peat · Interview · May 21, 2011

> ## SSRIs vs. Serotonin Uptake Promoters
>
> **Andrew Murray:** What is your opinion on Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)?
>
> **Ray Peat:** To the extent that they act on serotonin, I think it is good to look for alternatives. Much of it is just advertising—the idea that they are a "happy pill." Actually, they act on many different processes, increasing adrenaline and dopamine, and activating or inactivating enzymes. No one really knows the full extent of what they are doing. There are a few very effective antidepressants that are the opposite: Serotonin Uptake *Promoters*. The best studied is Tianeptine (brand name Stabilon). It promotes the uptake of serotonin, so it is less active in the synapse. It turns out to have beneficial effects on arthritis, diabetes, and inflammatory conditions related to high serotonin.
>
> **Sarah Murray:** So taking something that blocks serotonin could help with diabetes and arthritis?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yes. There is a whole class of anti-serotonin drugs becoming popular. For example, Ondansetron is used to prevent nausea from radiation exposure. Another is Lisuride. These are based on the indole molecular structure of serotonin but modified to block its effects. Bromocriptine is another one used to treat pituitary tumors because prolactin is promoted by stress, serotonin, or radiation.

### Source 9 — Serotonin, depression, and aggression - The problem of brain energy.

Ray Peat · Article · 2012 · https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/serotonin-depression-aggression.shtml

> Therefore, they aren’t called tranquilizers. If they were really selective for serotonin, they just wouldn’t be antidepressants. And chemicals that antagonize serotonin do seem to function as antidepressants (Martin, et al., 1992). When an SSRI is used to treat irritability and aggression, it is appropriate to call it a tranquilizer. When drugs are used empirically, without really understanding the disease or the drug, classifications, descriptions, and names are subjective.
>
> The serotonin situation reminds me of the history of **DES**: For almost twenty years, this synthetic estrogen was marketed for the prevention of abortions; then it came out as the “morning after” contraception/abortion pill. “If increasing serotonin isn’t the cure, then maybe decreasing serotonin will be the cure.”
>
> To begin to understand serotonin, it’s necessary to step back from the culture of neurotransmitters, and to look at the larger biological picture.
>
> Serotonin and estrogen have many systematically interrelated functions, and women are much more likely to suffer from depression than men are. Serotonin and histamine are increased by estrogen, and their activation mimics the effects of estrogen. Serotonin is closely involved in mood disorders, but also in a great variety of other problems that affect women much more frequently than men. These are probably primarily energy disorders, relating to cellular respiration and thyroid function. Liver disease and brain disease, e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, are both much more common in women than in men, and serotonin and estrogen strongly affect the energetic processes in these organs. Liver disease can increase the brain’s exposure to serotonin, ammonia, and histamine. It isn’t just a coincidence that these three amines occur together and are neurotoxic; they are all stress-related substances, with natural roles in signaling and regulation.
>
> There are good reasons for thinking that serotonin contributes to the nerve damage seen in multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.
>
> The high incidence of multiple sclerosis in women, and its onset during their reproductive years, is well known. The number of brain lesions is associated with the ratio of estrogen to progesterone. Estrogen activates mast cells to release histamine and serotonin, and activated mast cells can produce brain edema and demyelination. Blood clots have been microscopically associated with brain lesions like those in multiple sclerosis, and the platelets in clots release neurotoxic serotonin.

### Source 10 — KMUD Hair Loss Inflammation and Osteoporosis 2012

Ray Peat · Interview · 2012

> **Ray Peat:** Several years ago, several people noticed that people taking psychoactive drugs were getting osteoporosis. The SSRI anti-depressants that supposedly increase your serotonin — they don't reliably do that, but that's what they call them — they were seeing osteoporosis develop in people who had been on those for several years. And that led to some rethinking of bone metabolism. They see that serotonin, produced and coming mostly out of the intestine, reaching the bones — as a result of inflammation in the intestine, for example, or from taking a drug that increases serotonin — is interfering with bone metabolism and causing early, quick development of osteoporosis. And so now a couple of groups are coming out with drugs to suppress the synthesis of serotonin to cure osteoporosis.
>
> **Andrew Murray and Sarah Johannesen-Murray:** Thank you Dr. Peat, I really appreciate your time and your expertise.

### Source 11 — Estrogen, Histamine, Serotonin & Endotoxin with Georgi Dinkov | Rooted In Resilience Podcast #3

Georgi Dinkov · Interview · Mar 6, 2023 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FUmAsj8KEE

> **Georgi Dinkov:** And they're saying, well, what can we do to basically have the reverse effect? Because we definitely love it. And then we're going to worry how to market afterwards. So they said, you know, it was known from animal research at the time that LSD is an approximate serotonin antagonist and also activates the dopamine system. So they said, well, let's come up with a drug that does the exact opposite. And that's how the SSRIs were born. And basically... From the beginning, even during the clinical trials, many of the doctors that were on the teams that were reviewing the different clinical sites were saying, no, I don't think SSRI is good for depression. People are actually committing suicide when we give them SSRI. And FDA said, oh, no problem. We're going to put it as a warning, as a black box warning on the drug. But we're going to keep selling. So you're depressed and your primary risk for depressed people, the things that worry doctors is you're going to kill yourself. Yet they give you a drug that is actually proven to increase their risk of suicide. I don't know how to call this. They're either too dumb or ridiculously evil. And it was so bad that Germany, when Prozac was first released, Germany refused to approve it into their health system, said, under no circumstances will allow this drug to be in. Not only we disagree with the findings of the trials, which they suspected were manipulated, or at least the inconvenient data was removed, they're saying, we did our own trials, and basically people started killing themselves, so we're not going to allow it. But, you know, Uncle Sam and in general, the fire ministry flexes a lot of muscle and they convinced Germany. But even then, Germany was the first country in the world to put a black box warning on Prozac and subsequently on all of the SSRIs, warning people that they actually increased the risk of suicide.

_Generated 2026-07-20 from the Bioenergetic Oracle corpus._