Short-term sertraline treatment suppresses sympathetic nervous system activity in healthy human subjects

Increased sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity has been associated wit h stress, major depression, aging, and several medical conditions. This stu dy assessed the effect of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) , sertraline, on sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in healthy subje cts. Twelve healthy volunteers participated in a double-blind, placebo-cont rolled, norepinephrine (NE) kinetic study, in which the effects of sertrali ne on SNS activity were ascertained by determining NE plasma concentrations and NE plasma appearance rates and clearance rates in sertraline or placeb o conditions. Subjects received 50 mg of sertraline or placebo for two days and then one week later underwent the same protocol with the other drug. B y single compartmental analysis, plasma NE appearance rates were significan tly lower in the sertraline compared to the placebo condition (0.26+/-0.10 vs 0.40+/-0.23 mug/m(2)/min; P=0.04). Our study found that the net effect o f short-term SSRI treatment is an apparent suppression of SNS activity as i ndicated by a decreased plasma NE appearance rate in the sertraline conditi on. If this preliminary finding can be extended to long-term treatment of p atients, this could have significant therapeutic relevance for treating dep ression in elderly patients or those with cardiac disease, in which elevate d SNS activity may exacerbate underlying medical conditions. Published by E lsevier Science Ltd.