University Of São Paulo Researchers Look For Drugs For Growing Mental Health Cases
THEcommercialization of antidepressants and mood stabilizers grows every year in Brazil. According to data from the Federal Council of Pharmacy , the sale of these drugs grew by around 58% between 2017 and 2021. The Brazilian population progressively resorts to drugs in situations related to mental health. According to a survey released in 2017 by the World Health Organization (WHO), Brazil is one of the most depressed and anxious countries in the world. About 5.8% of the population suffers from depression and 9.3% have problems with anxiety. These data may explain the “success” of anxiolytics, antidepressants and sedatives in recent years.
Wellington Barros da Silva, professor of Epidemiology at the Federal University of Sergipe and consultant to the Federal Council of Pharmacy, discusses the role of antidepressants and mood stabilizers in the human body: “These drugs, in general, alter what we call of chemical mediators, substances that our organism produces, responsible for mood stages.” Like, for example, dopamine and serotonin, important neurotransmitters.
The production of these substances by the human body directly influences people’s mood. Problems such as depression and anxiety alter the functioning of chemical mediators and medications act by regulating the production of these mediators, with the aim of stabilizing the emotional condition of those who go through it.
About the effects of anxiolytics and sedatives, Alline Cristina de Campos, professor at the Department of Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto (FMRP) at USP, explains: “They will act first in our brain, where there are specific receptors for these drugs. What the drugs will do is facilitate the inhibition of our brain through a neurotransmitter called GABA and decrease anxiety.” GABA is aminobutyric acid, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter of the central nervous system. It acts as a relaxation inducer and concentration facilitator.
Because they act directly on the nervous system, antidepressants and anxiolytics should be used with care. Andréa, the fictitious name we use to identify a person who uses medication, tells of the side effects of using Zolpid , indicated to mitigate the effects of an antidepressant: “ It didn’t work out very well, I had a lot of hallucinations, I was seen by Samu on their behalf. I had very strong amnesia and forgot that I had taken the medicine, sometimes I took it again and the hallucinations only increased. I had to go to the doctor because I ended up becoming a danger to my own life because of so much hallucination with this medicine”.
Medical follow-up is essential to understand and control the effects of these drugs. “ When we are under the effect of this medication for a long time, our body gets used to it and it is as if our brain starts to produce smaller amounts of these neurotransmitters. If you abruptly withdraw this medication, it will cause the absence of this neurotransmitter, not completely, but at the level that our brain needs”, warns Professor Alline. Thus, an adaptation process is necessary for readaptation of the brain.
Danger of indiscriminate use
Like any medication, antidepressants or anxiolytics can cause patient dependence if used indiscriminately. Wellington da Silva explains the physiological aspects of this use: “When there is a change in the production of these substances in the body, it tries to rebalance itself by reacting to the medicine, because it is a strange substance in our body”. Dependence goes through several changes in the biological mechanism of the human organism.
In addition, Silva also mentions social and cultural factors, especially in Brazilian society. “It is the abusive and often unnecessary use of medication that induces you to cause an imbalance between the use of that medication and the body’s response. This will provoke the phenomenon that we call dependence”, he points out.
Andréa details her relationship with medication and warns of the importance of professional support: “I did not have a chemical dependency, but I did have a psychological dependency on it, sometimes, the fact that I have it or not is very significant in the matter. from anxiety. If I don’t have medicine, sometimes I get anxious just because I don’t have it, I like the security of having it, sometimes I feel the need to take it because of this psychological issue”.
She also comments that they are very dangerous remedies, but necessary in some cases. For Andréa, the main thing is to know to what extent it is necessary to consume the medicine, to have medical follow-up, to know when to stop and to stop in the right way. The weaning process, which consists of a gradual reduction in the dose to minimize the effects of the medicine, is fundamental.
The pandemic caused by the covid-19 virus was also a considerable factor for the increase in the commercialization of these drugs. From 2019 to 2020, the growth was 17% and, from 2020 to 2021, it was 12%. The period of social isolation and uncertainty about the coronavirus left marks on society. ” It is an indication that the pandemic has indeed affected people’s mental health, probably due to some issues, such as the confinement that we were forced to stay and the very anxiety situation that is caused by a disease that we do not care about. I had no knowledge or anything”, says Wellington da Silva.