Chris Masterjohn

In analyzing the biochemical data of clients over the last year I have worked on two cases involving catastrophic failures of energy metabolism that occurred in the wake of SSRI withdrawal. In both cases, switching SSRIs from one to another also seemed to play a role in precipitating energetic dysfunction. Here we will examine the concept that both SSRI withdrawal and SSRI switching can cause mitochondrial dysfunction.

Our series has so far focused on serotonin and melatonin but now turns to SSRIs themselves. These not only interact with the ability of serotonin and melatonin to support mitochondrial function in both good and bad ways, but are themselves drugs that act on mitochondria both by activating receptors that have little to do with serotonin inside cells and by traveling to the mitochondria and having variable effects that are mostly toxic.

In our series on how to understand the truth about serotonin, SSRIs, SSRI side effects, and the sometimes devastating effects of SSRI withdrawal, we have so far established that serotonin is a primarily non-brain non-neuronal signaling chemical that is fundamentally involved in the hypoxia response, and is also the substance from which we make melatonin, our mitochondria’s guardian angel.