SynthesisPsychopharmacology2023
The effect of SSRIs on fear learning: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Psychopharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of SSRIs on unconditioned anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis of animal studies.Psychopharmacology · 2024Pooled it
- A large-scale multimodal investigation of the interplay between the serotonergic system and emotion processing.Translational psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Within-patient association between emotion regulation and outcome in prolonged exposure for posttraumatic stress disorder.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2024Trial
- Chemogenetic activation of the medial prefrontal cortex alleviates the impaired extinction of fear memory through the increase in the binding of EGR1 and TET1 in an animal model of PTSD.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Fear learning in unmedicated patients with anxiety disorders: a comparison of delay conditioning, fear reversal, and trace conditioning.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Methylone promotes neurite outgrowth and has long-lasting effects on fear extinction learning.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Gut bacteria composition in animal models of Parkinson's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2026Article
- Article
- Juvenile fluoxetine treatment affects the maturation of the medial prefrontal cortex and behavior of adolescent female rats.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2025Article
- Analysis of Anxiety Disorders and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders for Screening Anxiolytic Drugs and Linking Preclinical and Clinical Research.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- The Effects of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Parameter Discussion: A Meta-Analysis Based on Randomized Controlled Trials.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2025Review
- Unraveling the Serotonergic Mechanism of Stress-Related Anxiety: Focus on Co-Treatment with Resveratrol and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors.Biomedicines · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleSelective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are considered first-line medication for anxiety-like disorders such as panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Fear learning plays an important role in the development and treatment of these disorders. Yet, the effect of SSRIs on fear learning are not well known.
objectiveWe aimed to systematically review the effect of six clinically effective SSRIs on acquisition, expression, and extinction of cued and contextual conditioned fear.
methodsWe searched the Medline and Embase databases, which yielded 128 articles that met the inclusion criteria and reported on 9 human and 275 animal experiments.
resultsMeta-analysis showed that SSRIs significantly reduced contextual fear expression and facilitated extinction learning to cue. Bayesian-regularized meta-regression further suggested that chronic treatment exerts a stronger anxiolytic effect on cued fear expression than acute treatment. Type of SSRI, species, disease-induction model, and type of anxiety test used did not seem to moderate the effect of SSRIs. The number of studies was relatively small, the level of heterogeneity was high, and publication bias has likely occurred which may have resulted in an overestimation of the overall effect sizes.
conclusionsThis review suggests that the efficacy of SSRIs may be related to their effects on contextual fear expression and extinction to cue, rather than fear acquisition. However, these effects of SSRIs may be due to a more general inhibition of fear-related emotions. Therefore, additional meta-analyses on the effects of SSRIs on unconditioned fear responses may provide further insight into the actions of SSRIs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.