25/02/2025
Even if we believe it's a chemical imbalance, what is causing the chemical imbalance? Latest understandings suggest it would be nervous system dysregulation. i.e. taking meds would not solve the root cause. A study published in molecular psychiatry titled "The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence." Looked at studies examining serotonin and depression involving tens of thousands of people. Scientists found that research that compared levels of serotonin and its breakdown products in the blood or brain fluids were no different between people diagnosed with depression and healthy people. This comes despite the fact that up to 90% of the public believe that depression is caused by low serotonin or a chemical imbalance.
The idea that serotonin might be involved in depression was first proposed in the 1960s, and became known as the serotonin theory of depression. The public messaging started in the 1990s when the pharmaceutical industry was marketing its new range of antidepressant drugs, the SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) such as Prozac.
The study’s lead author, Joanna Moncrieff, a professor of psychiatry at University College London and consultant psychiatrist at North East London NHS foundation trust explains,
“Many people take antidepressants because they have been led to believe their depression has a biochemical cause, but this new research suggests this belief is not grounded in evidence….It is high time to inform the public that this belief is not grounded in science.”
The authors also looked at studies where serotonin levels were artificially lowered in hundreds of people and concluded that lowering serotonin in this way did not produce depression in hundreds of healthy volunteers.
This is quite concerning given the fact that drugs like antidepressants change normal brain chemistry. They blunt both negative and positive emotions, and multiple studies have shown that they may only act through inducing hope (the placebo effect). These concerns have been permeating medical literature for years.
“Our view is that patients should not be told that depression is caused by low serotonin or by a chemical imbalance, and they should not be led to believe that antidepressants work by targeting these unproven abnormalities. We do not understand what antidepressants are doing to the brain exactly, and giving people this sort of misinformation prevents them from making an informed decision about whether to take antidepressants or not.” - Moncrieff
Depression may not be a problem with brain structure, chemical flow and neurotransmitters. Instead, the mood of depression we experience comes from other factors that in turn may lead to changes in biology, brain structure, chemical flows etc. Mainstream medicine does not identify this issue, because the issue may not be biological and is instead rooted in human experience, trauma, nervous system deregulation and more.
