4 ms·

We know that a group of people who suffer from depression have lower serotonin levels when compared to someone who is considered... not depressed. And we know t

We know that a group of people who suffer from depression have lower serotonin levels when compared to someone who is considered... not depressed. And we know that SSRI's prohibit or prevent the bodies ability absorb serotonin allowing it to accumulate and be more effective and pull it in line with someone who is not depressed, resulting in the depressed person becoming less or not depressed. So. I'm unsure how my statement is untrue in response to the parent statement stating we have no idea how they work.

mjfl 4y ago
> We know that a group of people who suffer from depression have lower serotonin levels when compared to someone who is considered... not depressed. I thought the whole point of the article was that there is no solid evidence of a relationship between serotonin levels and depression?
- philliphaydon 4y ago
  The article seems to say that lower levels of serotonin is not the /cause/ of the depression. But it doesn't change the fact that most studies seem to conclude that one of the things we can determine in people who suffer from depression is that they have lower levels of serotonin, and in some of those cases SSRIs help. Not all forms of depression are caused by serotonin, and anti-depressants may not always be the solution. Again, my point is we know how SSRIs work and what they do. What we do not know is why some people have lower levels of serotonin or why they absorb it too quickly compared to... non depressed people. The issue with depression is that its a huge complicated thing that we know a lot about, but at the same time, we also know very little. I would agree that we over perscribe medication for depression as we do for MANY different things. In Asia, antibiotics is handed out like candy when people are sick. You have the common cold, boom you get antibiotics, despite the fact that colds are caused by virus, and antibiotics only helps with bacterial infections not viral invections. The US has a major problem with big phama where people can be perscribed medicine for many things, and then have side-affects resulting in more things being perscribed. Painkills for injury > painkillers causing depression > Prozac, Prozac causes insomnia > sleeping pills, sleeping pills causes you to lose sexual drive > viagra, viagra causes you to gain weight > apatite suppresents. It goes on and on.
  - tomsto 4y ago
    This. I wonder if a big part of the problem is that depression and other mental illnesses are slightly unusual in that they are categorised based on symptoms rather than underlying biology, which are poorly understood. As a diagnosis it’s about as useful as ‘chest pains’ Maybe (I am not a clinical psychiatrist) there are 1, 10, or 100 very different underlying causes which would indicate different treatment if only they were better understood. But nonetheless the existing classification / ontology is established and will be hard to displace.

mjfl 4y ago

> We know that a group of people who suffer from depression have lower serotonin levels when compared to someone who is considered... not depressed. I thought the whole point of the article was that there is no solid evidence of a relationship between serotonin levels and depression?

philliphaydon 4y ago
The article seems to say that lower levels of serotonin is not the /cause/ of the depression. But it doesn't change the fact that most studies seem to conclude that one of the things we can determine in people who suffer from depression is that they have lower levels of serotonin, and in some of those cases SSRIs help. Not all forms of depression are caused by serotonin, and anti-depressants may not always be the solution. Again, my point is we know how SSRIs work and what they do. What we do not know is why some people have lower levels of serotonin or why they absorb it too quickly compared to... non depressed people. The issue with depression is that its a huge complicated thing that we know a lot about, but at the same time, we also know very little. I would agree that we over perscribe medication for depression as we do for MANY different things. In Asia, antibiotics is handed out like candy when people are sick. You have the common cold, boom you get antibiotics, despite the fact that colds are caused by virus, and antibiotics only helps with bacterial infections not viral invections. The US has a major problem with big phama where people can be perscribed medicine for many things, and then have side-affects resulting in more things being perscribed. Painkills for injury > painkillers causing depression > Prozac, Prozac causes insomnia > sleeping pills, sleeping pills causes you to lose sexual drive > viagra, viagra causes you to gain weight > apatite suppresents. It goes on and on.
- tomsto 4y ago
  This. I wonder if a big part of the problem is that depression and other mental illnesses are slightly unusual in that they are categorised based on symptoms rather than underlying biology, which are poorly understood. As a diagnosis it’s about as useful as ‘chest pains’ Maybe (I am not a clinical psychiatrist) there are 1, 10, or 100 very different underlying causes which would indicate different treatment if only they were better understood. But nonetheless the existing classification / ontology is established and will be hard to displace.