Is serotonin just the placeholder word to use when you have no understanding of neurotransmitters? Seriously, serotonin has like a hundred purposes in the body, what are they trying to refer to?

[–] Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

The advertising for SSRIs convinced a lot of people that depression is cause by not enough serotonin, so there's this idea that serotonin = happiness.

[–] darharrison@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I don't usually like arguing semantics but the serotonin thing grinds my gears since there's so many causes and treatments to depression and serotonin isn't even involved in many situations.

[–] MyUnclesSecret@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Us old folk heard that depression was because of low serotonin years ago, and the idea stuck like old gum to the underside of a desk. Yeah, it could be scrapped off, but since we don't ever see the bottom of the desk, why would we put in the effort. As a side note, that you for you comment as a reminder that I need to see what new treatments to depression do and look into what we have discovered in the last 20 years...

[–] MrBakedBeansOnToast@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Probably joy/happiness