Depression is ‘not caused by chemical imbalance’

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-a-revi...

>Prof Gitte Moos Knudsen, Professor of Neurobiology and Chair of Department of Neurology and Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, said:

>The authors justify the need for such a review by saying that it is a public misconception that depression is caused by low brain serotonin. The main misconception is, however, that depression is a single disease with a single biochemical deficit. Today, it is largely accepted that depression is a heterogeneous disorder with potentially multiple underlying causes. The review aims to uncover existing evidence for a serotonergic deficit, but the studies included in the review use methodologies that only generate proxies for the real question which is if synaptic 5-HT concentration and release are altered in (subsets) of patients with major depression.

>Prof Phil Cowen, Professor of Psychopharmacology, University of Oxford, said:

>I studied the role of serotonin in people with depression for three decades and I’m broadly in agreement with the authors’ conclusions about our current efforts, though I lack their adamantine certainty. No mental health professional would currently endorse the view that a complex heterogenous condition like depression stems from a deficiency in a single neurotransmitter

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