Er. Not necessarily.
We all know that the SSRIs were the "new big thing of the 90s". But do we know what causes depression, or why treatments work?
Er. Not really.
A big problem with the serotonin hypothesis is the growing body of research comparing SSRIs to interventions that do not target serotonin specifically. For instance, a Cochrane systematic review found no major difference in efficacy between SSRIs and tricyclic antidepressants.
In addition, in randomized controlled trials, buproprion and reboxetine were just as effective as the SSRIs in the treatment of depression, yet neither affects serotonin to any significant degree.
St. John’s Wort and even good old placebos have outperformed SSRIs in recent randomized controlled trials. Exercise was found to be as effective as the SSRI sertraline in a randomized controlled trial.
The research and development activities of Big Pharma also illustrate a smaller role for serotonergic intervention. Lilly, the company that brought us Prozac, recently released duloxetine, an antidepressant designed to impact norepinephrine as well as serotonin.
So, a bit of a disconnect between science and advertising here!
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020392
Here's a genetic theory:
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=39315
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