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News Serotonin May Not Play Major Role In Depression, New Evidence Suggests

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[DLMURL]http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20140109-26103.html[/DLMURL]

New research in mice throws into question the long-standing belief that serotonin deficiency plays a key role in depression.

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Image: Allison Herreid/Shutterstock
A study by scientists in the US has cast doubt on the belief that a deficiency in serotonin, a chemical messenger in the brain, is a major trigger for depression.

The team from the John D. Dingell VA Medical Centre and Wayne State University School of Medicine in Michigan developed mice that lacked the ability to produce serotonin in their brains, and found they did NOT show signs of depression-like symptoms.

The results are published in ACS Chemical Neuroscience, and suggest that the majority of today’s antidepressants, which target serotonin, may not be as effective as we had hoped.

According to the World Health Organisation, depression is the leading cause of disability across the globe, affecting more than 350 million people worldwide. Back in the late 1980s, the antidepressant Prozac was developed, which works mainly by increasing the amount of serotonin in the brain. It seemed to be effective, and so other depression treatments that acted on serotonin began to flood the market. However, scientists know that 60 to 70 percent of patients taking such drugs continue to feel depressed.

The team, led by Donald Kuhn, decided to investigate whether serotonin was as involved in the disorder as we expect - if at all.

To do this, they developed “knockout” mice that didn’t have the ability to make serotonin in their brains. According to the current dogma, these mice should have been depressed. But while the mice were compulsive and aggressive, they didn't show signs of depression-like symptoms, the researchers report.

After running a range of behavioural tests, the scientists found that when the knockout mice were put under stress, they behaved in the same way as most normal mice. Most of them also responded to antidepressant medications in a similar way to normal mice.

A press release explains: “These findings further suggest that serotonin is not a major player in the condition, and different factors must be involved.”

The authors conclude in their paper that this research could dramatically alter the creation of antidepressants in the future.

If this research is verified, it could turn out to be quite embarrassing - especially when this seems like it should have been one of the first studies done before the development of antidepressants. But mostly it’s great news, as it’ll give scientists a better indication than ever before of where we should be targeting antidepressant treatments.

Watch this space.

[DLMURL]http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20140109-26103.html[/DLMURL]

I thought others might be interested in this.
 
They wouldn't need to write some scientific BS about this, if they just stuck their heads out their windows and asked people who actually have depression and have been given that crap. The majority would give them a resounding middle finger and toss them back at them. It seems only the doctors and academics believe their perpetuated nonsense about how depression works. If it was so easy, then technically, SSRI's should have worked on the majority, yet they fail on the majority.
 
There was some study about SSRIs being associated with actual growth in some brain cells in spots, I think, too. Well, many of us have been through a doctor trying out everything under the sun on us... I'm glad to be on something that keeps me sleeping ok, helps functioning etc. -- wouldn't be able to get to the chocolate without it...
 
Like x10.
I don't have a lack of serotonin....
This stuff really needs to get out there, so people like you don't suffer from depression or mania because they are giving you the wrong medication.
 
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If this research is verified, it could turn out to be quite embarrassing - especially when this seems like it should have been one of the first studies done before the development of antidepressants. But mostly it’s great news, as it’ll give scientists a better indication than ever before of where we should be targeting antidepressant treatments.

Love this spin. We messed up big time, and that's great news because knowing that gives us a better indication than ever before of where we should be.

Does anyone really have faith in these people? Or their drugs? Or their research findings?
 
New research in mice throws into question the long-standing belief that serotonin deficiency plays a key role in depression.

If this research is verified, it could turn out to be quite embarrassing - especially when this seems like it should have been one of the first studies done before the development of antidepressants. But mostly it’s great news, as it’ll give scientists a better indication than ever before of where we should be targeting antidepressant treatments.

Love this spin. We messed up big time, and that's great news because knowing that gives us a better indication than ever before of where we should be.

Does anyone really have faith in these people? Or their drugs? Or their research findings?

They missed the basic protocol for basing a treatment on evidence based research @Hashi. Personally I think that there should be a class action or class actions around the globe. I can't count how many antidepressants that I have tried over the years. To go through all that and be devastated that they didn't work and then to find out that there is no real science on which all those treatments that I went through. I am not impressed at all.

This is the basics of scientific research, and they didn't do it. It is like the sun rising each day. The spin is appalling, but they won't apologise because the companies will see it as leaving them open to legal action, and legal action I want to take against them. They made millions out of people like all of us on myptsd and we went through all that for nothing.

It does show that you can't accept people's scientific research - that there should always be independent checking - and I had assumed that this was the case. So no faith in the money making drug companies, their drugs or their research.

I will be totally unimpressed if they don't get hammered in the courts for this.

In reality we have been used as test subjects in an unethical study for their financial benefit. It is appalling.
 
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