Is depression caused by a “chemical imbalance” in the brain? It’s a very commonly held belief, but also a scientifically controversial one. 🔎Analysis from StuartJRitchie
argues that the reviewers missed important studies from their review of the evidence, including some from brain-imaging studies. It’s not clear how high-quality these studies are, however, since they tend to be very expensive to run and are thus rather small-scale. Even if they were included, I’m still not sure how strong the serotonin hypothesis would look.responding to their critics
with their own letter. They note an inconsistency in their critics’ positions: some say that they’re attacking a straw man and that the “chemical imbalance” theory isn’t taken seriously any more; but others defend the theory and say there’s evidence for it. So which is it? “No one believes it,” the reviewers quip, “but no one wants to let it go either.”
It’s a fair point: different researchers think very differently about the serotonin idea, and even after many decades of research, its overall scientific status is unclear. But there are two separate questions here and they both need dispassionate, unbiased analysis. First, what does serotonin have to do with depression? The review performs a useful service in pointing out that the evidence for this position is quite complex and hard to come by.
– that their review has implications for people taking these drugs. In a theoretical sense it’s important to know how the drugs work; but in a practical sense, only randomised trials of the drugs versus placebo can answer that question.
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