European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology
-
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol · Oct 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialUsing a partner's facial emotion to elucidate social dominance motivation induced by an SSRI.
Previous studies independently showed that acute treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) enhanced happy face recognition, and dominance behaviors which might reflect enhancement of reward sensitivity. The present study aimed to determine whether such a mechanism would be related to social resource acquisition induced by an SSRI. Forty healthy subjects were recruited for the experiment. ⋯ In the fearful confederate condition, escitalopram increased ingratiation messages and reduced time spent looking away from the confederate. No changes in these measures were found in the sad confederate condition. Therefore acute escitalopram treatment enhances reward sensitivity to the facial emotions of social partners which in turn increases social resource acquisition and social dominance towards happy but not fearful social partners.