Wow, so much more information then I thought I actually knew .. Really interesting about the dopamine fact. I know someone who was taking anti depressives (SSRI) which never worked for her. After a few months she started smoking cannabis which she claimed to work and really made her feel better (she didn't smoke a lot I think). Could it be possible that she actually needed anti depressives that affected the dopamine level instead of the serotonin ?
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Possibly! It's not easy to get something like this right.
True, she went doing several tests and the only thing the doctors did was increasing the dosage ... unfortunately
The cause of depression is not mostly chemical. It's psychological. The chances of getting over it are higher if the patient is given something positive to focus on or find the event that caused the depression to be not as important as he thought. Drugs do not solve depression as much as numbing negative emotions. They never solve the problem.
If the cause is a disturbance in the serotonin or dopamine system, "positive things to focus on" don't do shit. It's similar with a thyroid hypofunction. I suffered immensely before I got my meds, slept 16 hours a day, unable to concentrate and incredibly depressed/suicidal.
As soon as I got a replacement for my missing hormones, it became better.
Please tell me again how drugs do not "solve depression" and just "numb" it.
Sure, there are cases where it's psychological, but it's by far not all or most of them.
This is why i said "mostly". I don't believe most depressed people have disturbance in their systems.