Opinion: Chemical imbalance theory of depression: clearing up some misconceptions

Prof Joanna Moncrieff and Dr Mark Horowitz Writing in The Conversation, Professor Joanna Moncrieff and Dr Mark Horowitz (both UCL Psychiatry) respond to comments from psychiatrists and others about their recent research into serotonin and depression, and potential implications regarding antidepressants. The scale of the response to our recent study finding that there was no support for the idea that low serotonin causes depression - the so-called "chemical imbalance" theory of depression - was enormous. Our paper is one of the 400 most shared of the 21 million papers that have ever been tracked. And our article in The Conversation was read by more than 1.3 million people. However, we feel that some of the responses missed the point, and we'd like to address those points here. The main response from leading psychiatrists was that antidepressants work and it does not matter how. However, whether antidepressants work is not clear-cut, and how they produce their effects matters.