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First Demonstration of Serotonin’s Direct Role in Depression
Emerging research implicates low serotonin in depression, after all.
Over the years, the serotonin hypothesis of depression, which suggests that low or impaired serotonin neurotransmission is related to the symptoms and possible causes of depression and related psychiatric disorders, has taken many hits.
Recently, a widely publicized review paper in Nature (Moncrieff et al., 2022) found no direct evidence that serotonin is involved in the pathophysiology of depression. This led to an explosion of reports and even attacks which reverberated across the internet about the serotonin hypothesis, the long-debunked “chemical imbalance” explanation, and, to an extent, psychiatry as a field.
The uproar is understandable-depression affects an estimated 20 million US citizens and nearly 300 million worldwide, and current treatments are only partially effective. There is a growing awareness that mental health problems are epidemic-a recent survey by the American Psychiatric Association found 79 percent of people see mental health as a public health emergency.
Moreover, rates of anxiety and depression are skyrocketing, especially among younger people, suicide has become a leading cause of death, and we are more aware every day of the…
