5 ms·

People like Ray Peat have been saying for decades that serotonin is really a stress hormone.

• elihu 10y ago
  In what way? That serotonin causes stress, or that stress causes serotonin to be released? Or the opposites of those, that serotonin relieves stress or stress causes a reduction in serotonin? Or something else?
  • mirekrusin 10y ago
    It's more complicated but he's saying for example [1] that stress elevates serotonin (ie. in hibernating animals stress from declining food supply elevates serotonin production, which decreases body temperature by lowering metabolic rate; similar effect is in non-hibernating animals, like humans, in winter). Interesting idea somewhere in the middle of this article, about "generations" of anti-depression drugs. He's basically saying that when drug patent is close to expire, they "invent" new generation of drugs, which patent holders claim is better than previous one (he's saying that 3rd gen (SRI - Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are actually not better than 1st gen (MAO - MonoAmine Oxidase)). He's saying that Lilly makes over $2 billion per year on Prozac for example. From what he's saying it also seems that "playing" with serotonin increases suicide rate in people who didn't have suicidal thoughts (but were depressed). Also that the clearest effect from studies of serotonin is that it's causing "learned helplessness" in subjects. I'm not sure how accurate this is, just skimmed over [1] - please read the source if you want more info. There are other articles on that site as well related to serotonin. [1] http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/serotonin-depression-aggression.shtml http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/serotonin-depression-ag...