wha is the 'negative' equivalent of serotonin?

Question

serotonin is the chem responsible for sensations of pleasure/happiness etc, right. so is there a chem that is responsible for sadness/depression? or depression is primarily the effect of low serotonin level?

Answer 1

No, there is no negative equivalent of serotonin in chemical form, the lack of serotonin causes depression and issues of the sort. You can raise your serotonin levels with exercises and meditation.

Answer 2

There is no real negative of serotonin, though I believe that there are some neurotransmitters that hasten it's reuptake. Serotonin only affects one kind of happy. It's more that contented feeling of being generally ok. Dopamine is more about pleasure. Serotonin is the kind of happy where you're cool with everything, and dopamine is the kind of happy that screams "more!", the kind that gets a buzz when you smoke a cigarette. SSRIs also mess with your dopamine pathways, which is why wellbutrin is good for quitting smoking. You no longer get the feeling of satisfaction. It's good to keep both in balance, and you'll eventually learn to recognize what each feels like. Also, if you're low on serotonin, you can buy a supplement called 5-HTP. It's a precursor to serotonin, if you take it before bed you'll sleep better and it puts some people in a good mood. I need both an SSRI and 5-HTP to stay in a good state of mind, but some people are fine with just one or the other.

Answer 3

sort of... its a lot more complicated than that. to my knowledge its not really clear how the drugs work, but the most common theory is that they work more by increasing serotonin and/or norepinephrine and the increased level of these chemicals causes physical changes in the brain over time, not neccesarily that if you suddenly added serotonin you would be happier (though that is good reasoning and that is how many types of drugs work). that's why it takes a few weeks before antidepressants start to work rather than immediately like many other types of drugs do. im not sure if it is known whether or not there is a specific neurotransmitter that has the exact opposite effect on the nervous system, i dont know enough about the stuff to tell you for sure

Answer 4

Your body absorbs it back...thus the class of drugs that Zoloft falls into that is a Seritonin uptake inhibitor it inhibits your brain from absorbing it back as quickly thus you have more serotonin floating around to have the pleasure connection.

Answer 5

ditto. Depression arises out of a chemical imbalance, and usually they find low serotonin levels.

Answer 6

serotonin is blamed for depression, a lack of it. ssri's are anti depressents "selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors" they make you reuse your serotonin over and over by blocking reupake