if young metro don’t trust you

sources - metro.co.uk/2022/07/21/depression-is-not-caused-by-a-chemical-imbalance-in-the-brain-17036945

nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0

The new review, which a***ysed existing studies, suggests the condition is not likely caused by a chemical imbalance, and calls into question what antidepressants do.

Researchers say their findings are important as studies show that as many as 85-90% of the public believes that depression is caused by low serotonin or a chemical imbalance.

Most antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and were originally said to work by correcting abnormally low serotonin levels.

There is no other accepted way by which antidepressants affect the symptoms of depression.

Lead author Joanna Moncrieff, a professor of psychiatry at UCL is a consultant psychiatrist at North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT).

She said: ‘It is always difficult to prove a negative, but I think we can safely say that after a vast amount of research conducted over several decades, there is no convincing evidence that depression is caused by serotonin abnormalities, particularly by lower levels or reduced activity of serotonin.

‘The popularity of the “chemical imbalance” theory of depression has coincided with a huge increase in the use of antidepressants.

‘Prescriptions for antidepressants have risen dramatically since the 1990s, with one in six adults in England and 2% of teenagers now being prescribed an antidepressant in a given year.’

Urgent need for more evidence on how to stop antidepressants, review finds
‘The popularity of the “chemical imbalance” theory of depression has coincided with a huge increase in the use of antidepressants’.
‘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.’

Professor Moncrieff added: ‘Thousands of people suffer from side effects of antidepressants, including the severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise.

‘We believe this situation has been driven partly by the false belief that depression is due to a chemical imbalance.

‘It is high time to inform the public that this belief is not grounded in science.’

The umbrella review looked at all relevant studies that have been published in the most important fields of research on serotonin and depression.

In total, these involved tens of thousands of participants.

One of the findings was that research that compared levels of serotonin and its breakdown products in the blood or brain fluids did not find a difference between people diagnosed with depression and healthy people.

The authors also looked at studies where serotonin levels were artificially lowered in hundreds of people.

These studies have been cited as demonstrating that a serotonin deficiency is linked to depression.

But a review of the research available in 2007 and a sample of recent studies found that lowering serotonin in this way did not produce depression in hundreds of healthy volunteers.

Other studies looked at the effects of stressful life events and found that the more stressful life events a person had experienced, the more likely they were to be depressed.

One early study found a relationship between stressful events, the type of serotonin transporter gene a person had and the chance of depression.

However, larger, more comprehensive studies suggest this was a false finding.

These findings led the authors to conclude that there is ‘no support for the hypothesis that depression is caused by lowered serotonin activity or concentrations’.

Time to get off the SSRI I guess

low libido goes crazy tho

Depression is linked to your credit score

Life & this world is filled with suffering

Is that not enough reason for depression to exist?

This is basically saying niggas are born with depression

It's actually more the opposite

Doesn't mean SSRIs don't work tho

Bro said let’s just take it the whole other direction

depression doesn't happen more in countries that suffer more tho

More ways for pharma to sell d**** to gen pop. It’s gotten harder with opioids but they can still use SSRIs now to push

they're talking about levels of serotonin at the end but it doesn't mean much if your receptors don't do the work

But a review of the research available in 2007 and a sample of recent studies found that lowering serotonin in this way did not produce depression in hundreds of healthy volunteers.
Other studies looked at the effects of stressful life events and found that the more stressful life events a person had experienced, the more likely they were to be depressed.

Ppl already missing the point itt

not surprising

inform us don’t talk down to us king

depression is more likely to happen after a stressful event where you couldn't do anything about it and your body/brain is just burnt out

This study doesn't mean SSRIs don't work tho, plenty of evidence for its efficacy with placebo controlled double blind studies

Effectice medication doesn't necessarily resolve the root cause

whatever scratchin mamba said is all. It’s not so much it doesn’t exist just it’s based on traumatic/stressful situations in life. Just based off this article