If you repeat something enough times, people will come to believe it

[Taka]

The idea that low serotonin causes depression has been repeated like a mantra by public health authorities (see movie below for a nice example). The serotonin theory of depression is a good illustration that if you repeat something enough times, people will come to believe it.

But just as headaches are not caused by a lack of aspirin, the efficacy of serotonergic drugs are not a proof that depression is caused by a lack of serotonin.

MORE: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/charting-the-depths/201007/the-serotonin-theory-depression-is-collapsing

Now, if your baby dies at 10am, your doctor can diagnose you with a mental illness at 10.01am and start drugging you straight away.

It turned out that the drug companies – who fund almost all the research into these drugs – were taking this approach to studying chemical antidepressants. They would fund huge numbers of studies, throw away all the ones that suggested the drugs had very limited effects, and then only release the ones that showed success. To give one example: in one trial, the drug was given to 245 patients, but the drug company published the results for only 27 of them. Those 27 patients happened to be the ones the drug seemed to work for.

MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/is-everything-you-think-you-know-about-depression-wrong-johann-hari-lost-connections

https://kellybroganmd.com/depression-serotonin/

[Taka]

Post by Taka
The idea that low serotonin causes depression has been repeated like a mantra by public health authorities (see movie below for a nice example). The serotonin theory of depression is a good illustration that if you repeat something enough times, people will come to believe it.
But just as headaches are not caused by a lack of aspirin, the efficacy of serotonergic drugs are not a proof that depression is caused by a lack of serotonin.
MORE: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/charting-the-depths/201007/the-serotonin-theory-depression-is-collapsing
Now, if your baby dies at 10am, your doctor can diagnose you with a mental illness at 10.01am and start drugging you straight away.
It turned out that the drug companies – who fund almost all the research into these drugs – were taking this approach to studying chemical antidepressants. They would fund huge numbers of studies, throw away all the ones that suggested the drugs had very limited effects, and then only release the ones that showed success. To give one example: in one trial, the drug was given to 245 patients, but the drug company published the results for only 27 of them. Those 27 patients happened to be the ones the drug seemed to work for.
MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/is-everything-you-think-you-know-about-depression-wrong-johann-hari-lost-connections
https://kellybroganmd.com/depression-serotonin/

So, when your doctor says, “You see, look how sick you are, you shouldn’t have stopped that medication,” you should know that the data suggests that your symptoms are withdrawal, not relapse.