pustluk:

pustluk:

pustluk:

yall are aware that the serotonin thing is pseudoscientific handwaving right

actually, more than that, it’s an “embarrassingly reductionist, one-deficiency-one-illness-one-pill model of mental illness” that began as a disturbingly successful marketing campaign by Eli Lilly (makers of prozac) in the 80s and GSK (makers of paxil) in the 90s.

here are some well-researched pop science articles on the subject:

• Depression: It’s Not Your Serotonin, citing a large amount of academic research into manipulation of data relating to the low-serotonin hypothesis by drug companies. Turner et al (2008) in particular revealed that half of the 74 studies conducted by pharmaceutical companies on their SSRIs were negative, of them only 3 of them were published as is, 11 were published with positive spin, and 22 were left unpublished.
• Psychiatry’s Grand Confession, citing increasingly skeptical research and also referencing questionable marketing tactics.

• Television adverts for antidepressants cause anxiety, citing a push from academics to ban adverts claiming “chemical imbalance” causes depression.

as well as citations in the literature:

• Cowen PJ, Browing M (2015), a review summarizing the state of research into the serotonin hypotheses, concluding that “impairing serotonin function can cause clinical depression in some circumstances, but is neither necessary nor sufficient”, and that low serotonin at best correlates with prolonged recovery. They also directly critique development of psychiatric theory from the effects of pharmaceuticals.

• Lacasse JR, Leo J (2005), a review of opinions on the low-serotonin hypothesis from leading researchers and clinicians.

• Smith KA, Fairburn CG, Cowen PJ (1997) and

  Berman RM, Narasimhan M, Miller HL, et al (1999), studies in which rapid depletion of tryptophan (a serotonin precursor) produced no clinically significant changes in mood in healthy patients, and only brief clinically-relevant relapses in recovered patients.

• Risch N, Herrell R, Lehner T, et al (2009), a 14000-patient meta analysis concluding there is no current link between serotonin transporter genotype and depression, accounting for social/personal stressors.
• Castrén E (2005), a review on an alternate hypothesis that cites problems in information processing/cognition as the casuse of depression, and suggests that SSRIs actually disrupt neurochemical homeostasis even further, and that long-term recovery is a neuroplastic response to this magnified disruption.

like, if you’re participating in the “if you can’t make your own serotonin, store-bought is fine!” meme culture surrounding this, you’re furthering capitalist propaganda and that’s all there is to it. knock that shit off.

of course, this isn’t at all to say that people should never pursue medical treatment for their depressive symptoms or that their medication isn’t really helping them.

it’s just that furthering mythology propagated by the pharmaceutical industry that reduces the conditions of depressive pathology to an innate “chemical imbalance” obfuscates the social and material realities (i.e. capitalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc) that cause and exacerbate mental illness.

like, as tempting as it is to buy into the easy one-pill answer, there are broader social questions and pathologies at stake and we can’t afford to lose sight of them–especially not now.