[dontknowwhyihn]

Don’t people still talk about “low seratonin levels?” I always found it suspect that we say someone’s levels are low without actually measuring them.

[astrange]

Yes, and psychiatrists never believed it was "low serotonin" at all, or at least claim to have never believed it.

For ADHD, stimulants actually do treat it by fixing "low dopamine"… in specific areas of the brain. But "low dopamine" is also a description of Parkinson's disease.

But SSRIs don't work like stimulants do; they take a lot more than half an hour to take effect. We don't actually know how SSRIs work in the people where they do work.

[FollowingTheDao]

> But SSRIs don't work like stimulants do; they take a lot more than half an hour to take effect.

Sorry, need to be an anecdote for you. Prozac makes me manic in about 5 hours. We know how SSRIs work, the problem is they are treating a symptom not the cause of depression which is immune dysfunction.

If SSRIs did not increase serotonin there would be no risk of them causing serotonin syndrome, and they do.

[hinkley]

The fact we still called them SSRIs is the part that gets me. But I suppose until we know how they actually work we can’t just call them “thingy”.