Depression Defies Simple Serotonin Theory

The popular claim that depression simply results from low serotonin is an oversimplification that researchers have challenged for years. A 2015 paper noted that the serotonin hypothesis was nearly 50 years old but had never been clearly substantiated. Evidence suggests that impaired serotonin function can contribute in some circumstances, but it is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause depression. Although antidepressants alter serotonin activity, researchers still do not fully understand how those changes produce their therapeutic effects.

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