What is it about?
For decades people have been told that depression is caused by a lack or serotonin in the brain and that antidepressants can correct this. We collected together studies from the main areas of research into serotonin and depression and found no consistent or compelling evidence from any of these areas that depression is linked with a serotonin abnormality.
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Why is it important?
The work is important to correct the public perception that depression is caused by a chemical abnormality in the brain, a misleading message that was spread by the pharmaceutical industry and public bodies. It also reveals that antidepressants do not work in the way they have been said to work and opens up the possibility that they do not work by correcting an underlying pathological process at all.
Perspectives
The idea that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance has been enormously influential and is shown to create a pessimistic mindset that leads people to believe they will never get better and need to rely on medication forever. We undertook this research in order to challenge this misleading information, so that people are properly informed about the state of the scientific evidence and can make better-informed choices about the use of antidepressants.
Joanna Moncrieff
University College London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Serotonin Theory of Depression: A Systematic Umbrella Review of the Evidence, FOCUS The Journal of Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry, April 2026, American Psychiatric Association,
DOI: 10.1176/appi.focus.26024112.
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