Depression Tip #32: Neurotransmitters!💙
Oct 20, 2024Depression Tip #32: Neurotransmitters!
It used to be the case that the story told to people who had depression was that they had a chemical imbalance in the brain, specifically they were lacking or low in serotonin, and by taking SSRIs, a group of antidepressants, that would boost the levels of serotonin in the brain and the person would start to feel better.💙
And that actually does happen in some people, but it doesn't seem to be the whole story. In fact, what's really interesting is that serotonin is only one of a group of neurotransmitters known as monoamines.💙
Two other neurotransmitters in that group are norepinephrine, also known as noradrenaline, and dopamine. And what's interesting is that they seem to be responsible for different parts of depression if you talk in simplistic terms.💙
So dopamine is known as the pleasure molecule, and depression is known to have anhedonia where we don't take pleasure from things. Norepinephrine seems to play a role in psychomotor retardation, which is common in depression and is when the person doesn't feel like doing anything, they don't have the energy, they don't have the motivation to get up and to do things.💙
And serotonin seems to play a role in the thoughts related to depression, so the cycling ruminative thoughts, which is why SSRIs are sometimes prescribed for OCD as well. So it seems that the story isn't specific to serotonin, but is enlarged to these other members of the monoamine neurotransmitters, including dopamine and norepinephrine.💙