No accounting for taste As if antidepressants aren't bitter enough pills to swallow with their laundry list of negative side effects, researchers in Great Britain have found that they also interfere with your body's natural ability to taste foods. Of course, the researchers attributed the problem to fluctuating levels of brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters, which are responsible for mood. But the methodology behind their conclusion leaves something to be desired. They measured taste perception in 20 volunteers before and after administering two different forms of antidepressants. They found that after taking the drugs, the subjects reported being more sensitive to sweet, sour, and bitter flavors. The researchers attributed these findings to the change in neurotransmitter levels brought on by the drugs. Up to this point, I don't have an issue with the study. But then things get a little sticky. First of all, the research team tested the effects of fluctuating neurotransmitters by artificially manipulating levels of these brain chemicals in the body: Not a single participant in the study was actually depressed. So while the drugs the researchers administered did cause a change in neurotransmitter levels, the results of those alterations can't truly be applied to people who struggle with natural imbalances. Yet that's precisely what the researchers did. In fact, they ended up completely glossing over their use of antidepressants altogether and concluded that "because we have found that different tastes change in response to changes in the two different neurotransmitters, we hope that using a taste test in depressed people will tell us which neurotransmitter is affected in their illness...these results...may explain why anxious and depressed individuals exhibit diminished appetite." Now, I'm not denying that natural neurotransmitter imbalances that occur in cases of depression don't cause similar problems. But what I take issue with here is that the researchers and the media refuse to acknowledge that the taste disturbances found in this study could just as easily be tacked on to the ever-increasing list of antidepressant side effects -- not to mention the ever-increasing list of reasons NOT to use them and to opt for natural mood-regulating alternatives. Source:
"Taste perceptions altered by neurotransmitters," Reuters Health news, 12/19/06 | 
