“No convincing evidence” that depression is caused by low serotonin levels

Re:“No convincing evidence” that depression is caused by low... by nvrspyx on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @10:55PM (#32160814)

My guess, without digging into the study itself since I'm on mobile, is that there is no singular cause for depression. Rather, depression is simply a symptom of a wide range of causes, with one possible cause being low serotonin (or a reduced sensitivity to it). Or even, low serotonin is a symptom of the depression.

Not all patients with depression find relief from SSRIs, or medications in general, but some certainly do.

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Re:“No convincing evidence” that depression is caused by low... by patmorgan23 on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @11:02PM (#32160864)

It could even be that increasing serotonin is helps improve the patients mood and break thought patterns/cycles than kept them in their depression.

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Re:“No convincing evidence” that depression is caused by low... by lumost on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @11:08PM (#32160900)

It could be that any forced cognitive pattern change would have the same effect.

Double blind trials are hard, double blind comparative trials are more or less impossible.

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Re:“No convincing evidence” that depression is caused by low... by klodolph on Wednesday July 20, 2022 @01:21AM (#32161746)

The mechanism of SSRIs is not well-described as "increase serotonin".

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