Cases of depression and anxiety increased by 25 percent in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic alone by some counts, up from 1 in 20 adults worldwide, and the use of antidepressants has become more common. However, studies have found that antidepressants have unexpected risks.
In the 1960s, it was discovered that depression could be due to a lack of serotonin in the brain. Back then, people believed that serotonin was the “happiness factor” in humans. Serotonin is actually a neurotransmitter. The presynaptic neurons release serotonin and can also reuptake it into the brain to maintain homeostasis.
Thus, drugs were designed with the crude understanding that if the “recycling” pathway for serotonin is blocked, serotonin levels in body fluids will increase, and the symptoms will be relieved….