tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1732132352927731247.post1635868265272432073..comments2024-03-16T00:27:31.848-07:00Comments on Hooked: Ethics, Medicine, and Pharma: Yet More on the Broken Serotonin Model of DepressionHoward Brodyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00599587504924835039noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1732132352927731247.post-56380914971836831182012-05-03T17:22:06.914-07:002012-05-03T17:22:06.914-07:00Alexis, thank you for the compliment. I am not a r...Alexis, thank you for the compliment. I am not a regular blogger, though I do post just a few times each year on Health Care Renewal. You can access those posts by searching here: <br />http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/Bernard Carrollhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16203083806436919715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1732132352927731247.post-35058922197978110592012-05-03T15:14:03.621-07:002012-05-03T15:14:03.621-07:00Bernard Carroll I must say, you said some very tru...Bernard Carroll I must say, you said some very true and some things I didn't knew. Do you have a blog?Alexishttp://www.whatisserotonin.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1732132352927731247.post-2533739518735827762012-04-29T12:45:53.155-07:002012-04-29T12:45:53.155-07:00Now that I have read through the NYT article, I ha...Now that I have read through the NYT article, I have a further comment, regarding the hippocampal neurogenesis theory of antidepressant drug action. It strikes me as a case of the drunk looking for his lost keys under the lamp post. Had you asked clinical researchers in mood disorders how the hippocampus was relevant to depression before around 1990, they would have been puzzled, because that region of the brain has no known relationship to the core, defining features of depression. That is still true. Moreover, the experimental work that Mukherjee mentions is based on an animal model of dubious validity. I call it a pretend model. Also, this line of work is not going anywhere… it is just drifting, though the grant renewals may pay the bills in various laboratories.Bernard Carrollhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16203083806436919715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1732132352927731247.post-25343058571508432502012-04-25T07:23:22.499-07:002012-04-25T07:23:22.499-07:00Before there was a serotonin model of depression t...Before there was a serotonin model of depression there was a norepinephrine model of depression and for a while there was a cholinergic-adrenergic hypothesis, too. Not to mention a trace amine model and an electrolyte model, and, and, and. Models are supposed to be heuristic, not to stick around forever. As in the tale of the three blind men and the elephant, all of them are partly right and all of them are wrong.<br /><br />The serotonin model did stick around, not because of its intrinsic scientific merit but because it was hijacked by Pharma marketers. They insinuated themselves into the scientific conversation through various key opinion leaders, some of whom were not really aware of how they were being used. A key strategy was the invention of cute labels for the new drugs: once the SSRI meme took off then the selling was easier. SSRI didn’t explain anything, of course, and neither did ‘serotonin deficiency.’ Indeed, these labels gave the appearance of scientific closure without the substance.Bernard Carrollhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16203083806436919715noreply@blogger.com