10
votes
Accepted
Can the effectiveness of antidepressants be explained by a placebo effect?
Short answer
Don't believe everything you read.
Background
The article cited (Kirsch, 2014) appears in a German journal with a mediocre impact factor. Not the most convincing platform.
I'll cite ...
- 20.5k
7
votes
Accepted
Are there any ways to increase dopamine and serotonin levels when working or learning something complex?
When one is either learning or working with a new concept that is -
complex, untangle, counter-intuitive, tedious, multi-dimensional,
boring and difficult, it appears mood is altered to a lower ...
- 1,123
6
votes
Are there any ways to increase dopamine and serotonin levels when working or learning something complex?
I'm guessing you don't want to generally increase the level of those chemicals in the brain, just in the reward-motivation area.
In order to do so, you need to be rewarded and motivated, obviously. ...
- 141
5
votes
Accepted
How can someone enjoy something without dopamine?
It is oversimplifying things that a single compound mediates complex human behavior. To nuance things a bit, there are more neurotransmitters and modulators that mediate feelings of pleasure, as you ...
- 20.5k
3
votes
Accepted
Why might sleeping on the floor alleviate PTSD symptoms?
Why might sleeping on the floor alleviate PTSD symptoms?
Question: Does sleeping on the floor have similar neurotransmitter effects, as sleeping under a weighted blanket might? Psychiatrically, would ...
- 311
3
votes
Accepted
Measuring serotonin in the brain with a sample of spinal fluid
It is entirely possible to sample serotonin levels from cerebral spinal fluid (CFS) taken via a lumbar puncture, also known as a spinal tap, to the spinal column from the central nervous system (CNS).
...
- 1,196
3
votes
How does acute tryptophan depletion work?
don't the neurons already have plenty of serotonin stored in the axon vesicles from which the neurotransmission happens
Sure, but neurotransmission is happening all the time. It's not uncommon for a ...
- 7,221
2
votes
Accepted
What is meant by "serotonergic" in "serotonergic psychedelics"
Short answer
It's messy.
Background
The classical psychedelics (mescaline, DMT etc.) are derived from plants (peyote, ayahuasca) and have a long history of use by shamans and originally often mainly ...
- 20.5k
2
votes
Causality regarding neurotransmitter imbalance and depression
I have what is mostly a frame-challenge to your question as an answer: the simple "neurotransmitter imbalance" hypothesis is a bit outdated, and it hasn't been strongly influential in a research ...
- 7,221
2
votes
Can Prozac cause anxiety?
Prozac (the generic drug fluoxetine) is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and is primarily prescribed as an antidepressant, but also as an anxiolytic.
The side effects of fluoxetine ...
- 20.5k
2
votes
Can the effectiveness of antidepressants be explained by a placebo effect?
Let me supplement Alice's nice answer with a few more points. Regarding
there are antidepressants that do not enhance serotonin but suppress it.
That seems to be tianeptine; it is often brought ...
- 10.2k
2
votes
Relation of serotonin level and mood/depression
You say that
Antidepressants [a]rise [the] amount of serotonin in blood in short period of time. However, you should take antidepressants for quite a long period of time so that it took effect. Up to ...
- 10.2k
1
vote
are serotonin levels higher or lower in dominant vs. non-dominant primates and humans?
It seems Maté simply misread the research that he cited. The study on this, from 1984, says that
Dominant male adult vervet monkeys have whole-blood serotonin concentrations approximately twice ...
- 165
1
vote
Epigenetics and serotonin (amygdala threat response)?
From my limited understanding...
First off, you're definitely interpreting this correctly. The authors note:
[…] methylation of the proximal promoter of human SLC6A4 predicts threat-related ...
- 4,388
1
vote
Are there any ways to increase dopamine and serotonin levels when working or learning something complex?
This is more of a subjective opinion, (though there are some real world examples) but I feel that the concept of "gamification" (adding game-like qualities to non-gaming tasks) is quite relevant to ...
- 46
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