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by defaultname
1826 days ago
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As you mention, most SSRI ads specifically note that it is thought to work by inhibiting serotonin reuptake...maybe. There isn't even strong proof that serotonin plays the part popularly believed. But SSRIs work for many people, and do seem to have an effect, so the theoretical is good enough for now. |
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The "chemical imbalance" theory hasn't been taken seriously for decades. It's a myth that psychiatrists think that SSRIs are compensating for low serotonin. We've known for a long time that the actual anti-depressant effects come from somewhere downstream that isn't fully understood yet. This isn't really a new discovery. We've known from the start that SSRIs inhibit serotonin reuptake within hours of taking the first dose, but the full antidepressant effect can lag by weeks.
That doesn't mean that serotonin isn't involved in the therapeutic action of SSRIs, though. Occupying around 80% of the serotonin transporters is necessary to bring about the antidepressant effects of different SSRIs. So we do know that inhibiting serotonin reuptake is almost certainly the mechanism that kicks off the chain of events that ultimately produces the antidepressant effect, but we also know that the antidepressant effect doesn't come directly from this inhibition.
This is a good article that explains debunks the myth that psychiatry believes the "chemical imbalance" or "low serotonin" theories: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/debunking-two-chemical...