A Question for Physicians
Do you know how to treat a patient with a persistent horrendous side effect to a single dose of the SSRI Lexapro 20mg?
A patient wrote me, asking if I know any physicians who have seen this syndrome and know how to treat it.
After a single dose: “Sleep is ruined, Can’t nap or wake up sick feeling, Constant feeling like I am in agony, Can’t focus / concentrate, Can’t regulate body temperature, loss of appetite and libido, Memory issues, Extreme fatigue, Unintentional a weight loss, Muscles usually twitching somewhere, and Abnormal breathing”.
If you have seen this type of reaction and/or know how to treat it, please send your email to Scott Mclean at sdmclean@shaw.ca and a cc to me (the Editor of this newsletter) at Robert.postmd@gmail.com. The patient has given his informed consent for this email to be posted on www.bipolarnews.org.
Paternal heroin self-administration in rats increases drug-seeking behavior in male offspring via miR-19b downregulation in the nucleus accumbens
Wenjing Gao et al reported in Neuropsychopharmacology (2025) that “paternal heroin self-administration in rats results in increased heroin-seeking behavior in F1 male offspring. This effect was replicated by zygotic microinjection of sperm RNAs from heroin self-administration-experienced rats, but not from yoked infusion pairs, highlighting the role of sperm non-coding RNAs changes induced by paternal drug-seeking behavior (and not by just passive receipt of heroin.) Analysis of non-coding RNA changes in the NAc [nucleus accumbens] and sperm of the F0 generation revealed a significant correlation in miRNA expression profiles, particularly the downregulation of miR-19b in both tissues, which was linked to the observed phenotype. The heightened heroin-seeking behavior in the male F1 generation could be reversed by supplementing synthetic miR-19b in F0 sperm RNA or introducing miR-19b into the NAc of F1 offspring. These findings suggest that sperm miRNAs like miR-19b mirror changes in brain miRNAs, participate in epigenetic transmission of acquired traits from F0 to F1, as well as in regulating heroin SA behavior of offspring.”
Editor’s Note: These data suggest that dad rats self administering heroin transmit a vulnerability to self administering heroin to their offspring. It does not occur if the dad rats merely get heroin passively. It is likely that these data could be extrapolated to humans. If so, there is a question of whether taking opiates for pain (administered by a nurse as opposed to self administrated) would transmit vulnerability to the offspring. In any event, it may be that a heroin addict who self administers the drug not only puts himself at risk but also his male offspring. This makes clear that methods of producing primary protection in offspring for opiate addiction deserve exploration
