Posted on 09/02/2014 12:15:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The latest research exploring the topic found that mice without serotonin still reacted to antidepressants. The data could change the way we think about treating the leading cause of disability worldwide.
A lack in serotonin might not be entirely to blame for depression, new evidence suggests.
It's widely believed that people with depression don't make enough serotonin-a messenger in the brain. But mice lacking serotonin did not exhibit symptoms of depression, reports a study in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.
When Prozac — which works primarily by increasing the amount of serotonin in the brain — was introduced in the 1980s, scientists thought that upping serotonin levels was how to cure depression, which affects more than 350 million people and is the global leading cause of disability. Many other medications for depression came after.
But researchers say that 60% to 70% of people taking these types of antidepressants, called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, still remain depressed. And a study done in the 1990s by Pedro Delgado of the University of Texas found that humans depleted of serotonin didn't get depressed. Science has since gone back and forth on serotonin's role in the debilitating illness.
Donald Kuhn and his team at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center and Wayne State University School of Medicine wanted to add their research to the conversation.
Studying mice they engineered to be incapable of producing serotonin, they found that while those mice were more aggressive and compulsive than regular ones, they did not show signs of depression. They didn't even show any differences to regular mice when put under stress. And, normal mice and a one group of altered mice reacted similarly to antidepressants, suggesting that serotonin wasn't the deciding factor at play.
The researchers said that their study could lead to new ways we think about treating depression.
Excellent question.
No, I’m not saying that. I’ll stick with what the Bible says.
Please don’t be upset.
Good, I’m glad you clarified.
It still might be “just” a chemical imbalance, but some other chemical.
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