No, it’s not.

Pharmaceutical companies have done a bang-up job over the past two decades in promoting the serotonin theory of depression — namely that people who are depressed suffer from an “imbalance” in their serotonin levels which certain antidepressants can fix. This is such a simple explanation that most people can readily understand it, and therefore it became quite popular.

However, within a few years of it being promoted, it was also debunked in the scientific literature. Since most consumers don’t read the scientific literature and it’s not very interesting health news to say that serotonin isn’t the cause of depression, most people don’t realize this theory is no longer considered valid amongst researchers.

So we were happy to see our colleague over at Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry take another look at this issue, through a response to one of his readers’ comments. He points to an excellent article in the medical journal PLoS Medicine which, although a lengthy literature review article, pretty much describes our knowledge to-date about serotonin and depression.

The upshot of the entry is this — serotonin deficiencies do not directly cause depression. There is obviously some relationship there, but what it is isn’t nearly as strong as originally thought, and may not even be a primary or key ingredient of depression.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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depression » Is Serotonin the Main Factor or Cause of Depression? (11/13/2007)

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 31 Oct 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.