I don't think you people understand that drugs don't GIVE you serotonin?

Question

drugs for depression and ocd and anxiety disorders only help the part of ur brain develop more serotonin.it gives it a little push..the pill itself doesn't actually give you serotonin..it just nudges the brain to work a little harder.but it still doesn't give u the normal amount to stay mostly calm like people who don't have these mental disorders. I was talking about just making straight up serotonin to inject into people every now and then like they do insulin to get it up to that normal level.

Answer 1

Actually, SSRIs (antidepressants) don't stimulate your brain to make more seratonin, they stop your brain from reabsorbing the seratonin too quickly, so the limited amount of seratonin you naturally produce is just bouncing around in your brain, making connections between synapses smoother and easier.

People do already take seratonin pills, for sleep and anxiety disorders, but there's no evidence that it has any effect whatsoever. It's considered a food supplement, not a drug. By the time it has diffused through your whole body and most of it has been eliminated through digestion, the amount that makes it to your brain is minimal and has no real effect.

Answer 2

I did my masters thesis for psychology on serotonin and found out some stuff you would need to know for your treatment.

Serotonin can't get from the regular blood stream into the brain. The "blood-bran barrier" stops it. That's the outer layer or film around the brain that keeps out things that would be dangerous in the sensitive brain.

Tryptophan is the main chemical that goes into makes serotonin. It CAN make it into the brain from the body. Tryptophan is an amino acid, a protein. It's in the food we eat and that's what gets into the brain to make serotonin.

I was checking the theory that it's not how much tryptophan you eat but the ratio of it to other amino acids you eat. That's because tryptophan can't get in the brain by itself. First it has to bond with a little molecule that has the key to the barrier. Then the two get in and separate leaving the tryptophan in the brain.

Now the thing is that this transport molecule is in short supply in the body. And that their are six other proteins trying to use the same molecule. So the trick is to eat more tryptophan and less of the others so tryptophan is in a greater concentration and gets picked by more of the molecules than the other proteins.

And it does work. I take anti-depressants (SSRI's) and when you start their are certain symptoms you get early on but that go away in a few days. One of my most prevalent symptoms is that I get songs stuck in my head all the time for those first few days. I tried a diet with high concentrations of tryptophan for a few weeks before I did the study and I did get the songs stuck in my head all the time.

So you need to be thinking tryptophan rather than serotonin. You can buy tryptophan capsules and I tried them but I didn't get the same effect. Maybe they weren't concentrated enough or maybe they are better now. I don't know. But since they weren't working I stopped taking them.

I'm really sorry to bore you with a chemistry lesson. But, well, um, gee, I guess that's what I do when I talk about tryptophan. Sad. :)

Answer 3

those anti-depressants are SSRI's, which are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

normally your serotonin is released from a neuron and picked up by the next. not all of them are taken into the next, and the first neuron takes back in what was floating around in the synapse. these SSRI's block that reuptake vacuum, so that it leaves all of that floating around, and then more will build up.

you can't just inject serotonin into someone like that. serotonin (5-HT) can be purchased in pill form at health food stores, but i don't think it has been proven to work when ingested orally like that.

Answer 4

what? I thought depression is an overwhelming feeling caused by too much serotonin, and medication helps your brain clear it up.

Answer 5

I think the person above me meant 5HTP... just incase you really want to research is and can't find it.

Answer 6

can you even create serotonin?

Answer 7

I AGREE! ITS JUST THAT PEOPLE DON'T READ INFORMATIONS THAT AVAILABLE... IT IS JUST PLAIN LAZINESS.