This study shows (decide how convincingly) what has been suspected anyway. The causal direction of “chemical imbalance leads to depression” is just not a sensible assumption. SSRI are of course able to alleviate the symptoms as are other drugs or treatment that are not associated with serotonin. Tricyclic antidepressants, sleep deprivation, transcranial magnet stimulation, ketamine, exercise and many more. Also the efficacy of these other treatments does not depend on the performance in the Forced Swim Test. The multitude of different antidepressant approaches, the different and heterogeneous animal modeling leads me to believe that what we describe as major depression is a pathological alteration in the brain subnetwork activations, probably between frontal brain areas and formatio reticularis/pons. SSRI are a roundabout way of influencing network changes that take time to develop. And these chances happen to work via Sertonin paths but serotonin is not necessarily the cause of “depressed” state of the brain network.
Disc: Only peripherally me area of expertise. No sources because mobile
Disc: Only peripherally me area of expertise. No sources because mobile