With the collapse of the SSRI hypothesis, I feel like there was a missed opportunity to interrogate what it is about the affluent, technological society that makes such a staggering number of people so depressed.
It seems that we will instead (characteristically) plow forward with even more powerful drugs.
Nothing new has happened with SSRIs. Everyone always knew perfectly well they don't work by "raising serotonin levels", but they do still seem to work.
Yeah, I saw a lot of bad takes on Twitter related to the "debunking of the serotonin myth" with the insinuation that they'd finally proven that serotonin itself has absolutely no involvement in depression or anxiety, and it was all just a big hoax perpetrated by Big Pharma.
And then you read an article like this:
> The receptor has proven crucial to understanding the neuropharmacology of the psychedelic experience induced by classical hallucinogens. LSD, mescaline, psilocybin—they all interact with 5-HT2A. (In certain circles, the phrase “5-HT2A agonist” has supplanted “psychedelic”...
5-HT2A receptors, of course, bind to serotonin (or at least that's our primitive theory of what's going on).
We've known for 70 years now that monoamines like dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, etc. greatly influence mood. But our model of the brain is primitive, though that doesn't mean our current theories regarding these neurotransmitters like serotonin aren't on the right track.
Just because it hit the news last week doesn't mean the window has closed. You jsut have to be willing to get in arguments/break up with people who dislike hearing their assumptions questioned.
