• She said: ‘It is always difficult to prove a negative, but I think we can safely say that after a vast amount of research conducted over several decades, there is no convincing evidence that depression is caused by serotonin abnormalities, particularly by lower levels or reduced activity of serotonin.
• ‘Many people take antidepressants because they have been led to believe their depression has a biochemical cause, but this new research suggests this belief is not grounded in evidence.’
• Professor Moncrieff added: ‘Thousands of people suffer from side effects of antidepressants, including the severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise.
• ‘It is high time to inform the public that this belief is not grounded in science.’
• research that compared levels of serotonin and its breakdown products in the blood or brain fluids did not find a difference between people diagnosed with depression and healthy people.
• lowering serotonin in this way did not produce depression in hundreds of healthy volunteers.
• One early study found a relationship between stressful events, the type of serotonin transporter gene a person had and the chance of depression.
• However, larger, more comprehensive studies suggest this was a false finding.

"Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap" ~ Jesus