Some people find that Zoloft seems to numb their ability to feel emotion. Patients have reported feeling “flat” or “baseless.” Creative types such as artists and writers sometimes complain that their thoughts are more mundane while taking Zoloft, that it is more difficult to have flashes of creative insight.

Since creativity is such a subjective quality, there is no way to tell whether or not Zoloft has an effect on innovative thought. Obviously, if depression offered insight for some artistic types of
expression, Zoloft might hinder such inspiration. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that some people who experience depression are willing to trade misery for a more balanced life. In most cases, Zoloft increases productivity and innovation, due to the cessation of depression.

Even if Zoloft is not a “personality cosmetic,” the fact that people’s outlook can be changed from one of hopelessness to one of contentment is astounding. The therapeutic potential of Zoloft has led to interesting philosophical questions on the nature of happiness, the origin of personality, and the role
of melancholy in life experience. Zoloft has also stimulated new interest in how the brain generates mood. Researchers interested in the basis of human emotion can now map the brains of patients taking Zoloft to see what areas of the brain generate pessimistic thoughts.

One study found that key changes from Zoloft treatment occurred in the hippocampus, a region important for memory processing. Helen Mayberg, a professor at the University of Toronto and lead author of the study, also found increased connectivity in the amygdala (a region associated with
emotion) and the cortex (an area of higher thought processes) after chronic Zoloft treatment. In fact, Mayberg found that the increasing brain connectivity improved the the patient’s chance of sustaining the effects of the antidepressant, thereby preventing relapse. Another interesting finding from this same study was that Zoloft has gender-specific benefits. When researchers tracked how patients responded to stress, they found that Zoloft increased neuronal connectivity in the hippocampus of males but reduced it in females, as well as in several other regions.