• MickeySwitcherooney@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Is serotonin just the placeholder word to use when you have no understanding of neurotransmitters? Seriously, serotonin has like a hundred purposes in the body, what are they trying to refer to?

    • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The advertising for SSRIs convinced a lot of people that depression is cause by not enough serotonin, so there’s this idea that serotonin = happiness.

    • darharrison@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, I don’t usually like arguing semantics but the serotonin thing grinds my gears since there’s so many causes and treatments to depression and serotonin isn’t even involved in many situations.

      • Secret@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Us old folk heard that depression was because of low serotonin years ago, and the idea stuck like old gum to the underside of a desk. Yeah, it could be scrapped off, but since we don’t ever see the bottom of the desk, why would we put in the effort. As a side note, that you for you comment as a reminder that I need to see what new treatments to depression do and look into what we have discovered in the last 20 years…