Happy pills explained
What’s the story behind happy pills? Do they really make you happy? Can they cure depression?
If you’re exploring ways to treat depression, you must know how different methods work and what they might do to your brain chemistry. So we’re going to take a look at happy pills, also known as antidepressants, giving you a better idea of what they do and how they work.
Hopefully, you’ll get a better idea of the history and function of this medication to see if it’s something that might help you.
Let’s take a look.
What are Happy Pills?
What are happy pills called, actually?
The term “happy pills” is a colloquial phrase used to describe a medication that helps treat different symptoms of mental illness. For example, in most cases, people say “happy pills” when they’re referring to depression medication.
Some people might use the term as a blanket description of all medication used to treat mental illness. So if you came asking, “what are happy pills used for,” the answer is that they could be used for any number of mental illness.
Antidepressants are complicated medications, though, so it’s important to understand the differences between them. Before we look at how they work, let’s explore a little bit about their history.
The History of Antidepressants
Like many medicinal advancements, the first antidepressants were discovered by accident. Researchers were trying to treat symptoms of tuberculosis when they stumbled upon a drug that blocked the MAO enzyme.
It’s believed that blocking this enzyme allows dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin receptors to reestablish normal function. This discovery was made in the 1950s and was one of the first pharmaceutical approaches to treating depression.
Moving into the 1970s, scientists discovered an antidepressant that is still widely used today. A class of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) was one of the first branded and distributed antidepressant medications to affect the population in a real way.
It took over a decade for research to come to fruition when Prozac was released in 1988. These medications help serotonin receptor function by preventing a process called reuptake.
Reuptake occurs when a neuron reabsorbs a neurotransmitter after it conducts its impulse. For example, serotonin will return to its original neuron in some cases after it has sent a signal through the neural chain.
When reuptake is prevented, there’s an excess of that class neurotransmitter, contributing to changes in mood.
