Nicole Rust on Nostr: A bit surprised to see this on a JHU Med facts page. "Depression is ... a chemical ...
A bit surprised to see this on a JHU Med facts page.
"Depression is ... a chemical imbalance in your brain that needs to be treated."
"Depression is caused by an imbalance of brain chemicals."
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/major-depression
While the evidence suggests that antidepressants are effective in some cases, it's much less clear that "rebalancing chemicals" is how they operate. From Principles in Neural Science:
"Although antidepressant drugs bind to and inhibit MAO, NET, or SERT with their first dose, several weeks of treatment are typically required to observe a lifting of depressive symptoms. Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain this delay. One is that a slow buildup of newly synthesized proteins alters the responsiveness of neurons in a manner that treats the depression. Another is that increases in the levels of synaptic transmission of serotonin or norepinephrine rapidly increase plasticity in different emotion-processing circuits and that the latency to therapeutic benefit reflects the time it takes for new experiences to alter synaptic weights. A third hypothesis is that antidepressant efficacy is mediated in part by enhancement of hippocampal neurogenesis. Narrowing down the possible therapeutic mechanisms is challenging because of the lack of good animal models of depression. Without an animal model, it is not possible to know which of the many observable molecular, cellular, and synaptic changes cause depression or underlie the therapeutic actions of effective antidepressants."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_Neural_Science
"Depression is ... a chemical imbalance in your brain that needs to be treated."
"Depression is caused by an imbalance of brain chemicals."
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/major-depression
While the evidence suggests that antidepressants are effective in some cases, it's much less clear that "rebalancing chemicals" is how they operate. From Principles in Neural Science:
"Although antidepressant drugs bind to and inhibit MAO, NET, or SERT with their first dose, several weeks of treatment are typically required to observe a lifting of depressive symptoms. Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain this delay. One is that a slow buildup of newly synthesized proteins alters the responsiveness of neurons in a manner that treats the depression. Another is that increases in the levels of synaptic transmission of serotonin or norepinephrine rapidly increase plasticity in different emotion-processing circuits and that the latency to therapeutic benefit reflects the time it takes for new experiences to alter synaptic weights. A third hypothesis is that antidepressant efficacy is mediated in part by enhancement of hippocampal neurogenesis. Narrowing down the possible therapeutic mechanisms is challenging because of the lack of good animal models of depression. Without an animal model, it is not possible to know which of the many observable molecular, cellular, and synaptic changes cause depression or underlie the therapeutic actions of effective antidepressants."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_Neural_Science