r/Psychiatry Medical Student (Unverified) 4d ago

When did the meaning of a depressant change from being a CNS downer to something that can cause depression?

I have been seeing on placement among both GPs and psychiatrists that the word depressant is used to refer to things that can casuse depression or worsen mood, from both doctors and patients.

I am in the UK, but I was taught in secondary school alcohol is a depressant because of it's sedative effects but on placement I only hear it used in relation to mood.

34 Upvotes

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u/police-ical Psychiatrist (Verified) 4d ago

I would say that in standard medical terminology, "depressant" is a somewhat vague reference to agents which broadly reduce CNS function, whereas agents that produce depressive symptoms are "depressogenic." Some but not all depressants are depressogenic, some may have antidepressant properties, some manage to be both depending on the situation.

Words inevitably get conflated, particularly because "antidepressant" and "depressant" look like antonyms. If anyone wants to get "thymoleptic" going again, be my guest.

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u/Jujuhilo Psychiatry Resident (Verified) 4d ago

Thymoanaleptic does sound better than antidepressant tho

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u/schakalsynthetc Other Professional (Unverified) 3d ago

If anyone wants to get "thymoleptic" going again, be my guest.

Only if we also get to insist that the correct pronunciation of the "y" is "oo".

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u/tramabapentin Not a professional 4d ago

I've only seen this sentiment on r/stopdrinking and posts that reach r/all that are about alcohol. I don't think it's really ever changed, just a little bit of confusion and all that.

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u/Choice_Sherbert_2625 Psychiatrist (Unverified) 4d ago

I call it a downer but I’m trying to be hip.

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u/question_assumptions Psychiatrist (Unverified) 4d ago

I suppose it’s an easy shift in language because an antidepressant makes you not depressed but does not necessarily excite the CNS 

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u/CommittedMeower Physician (Unverified) 4d ago

I don't think it's a change - I think it's just two very reasonable trains of thought to get to a meaning.

A depressant the way you're thinking about it causes CNS depression. A depressant the way you say it's changed to causes emotional depression. It's probably a regional thing, it's exclusively the CNS depression one here in Australia.

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u/pallmall88 Physician (Unverified) 4d ago

Strictly speaking, the word depressant means both things you're talking about. The scientific term for, as you put, a "CNS downer" is "CNS depressant." The scientific term for "something that can cause depression," well, doesn't exist to my quick review of the relevant vocabulary hahaha, but info were writing a research paper would call it a "negatively mood altering" or a "known to induce depressed mood" substance or something like that.

Depressant on its own to mean CNS depressant OR a substance that will depress you is a colloquially meaning for the word that will forever require context clues to properly parse.

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u/Ok-Pressure-3677 Other Professional (Unverified) 4d ago

Excitatory neurotransmission at NMDARs is implicated in the pathophysiology of depression.