Letters
Antidepressants and serotonin hypothesis of depression
What does “work” mean in the case of antidepressants?
BMJ 2022; 379 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o2352 (Published 04 October 2022) Cite this as: BMJ 2022;379:o2352
- David T Healy, professor of psychiatry
- McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
- david.healy54{at}googlemail.com
For many people who think that depression is caused by low serotonin, an antidepressant “working” means that it corrects their serotonin system.1 The honest message to such patients is that their serotonin system is likely to be more abnormal after treatment than before.2
This might be a risk worth taking if there were evidence that the drugs saved lives …
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