Comment by InSteady
2 years ago
As with many behavior impairing/enhancing substances, there are effects on multiple neurotransmitters:
>Caffeine activates noradrenaline neurons and seems to affect the local release of dopamine. Many of the alerting effects of caffeine may be related to the action of the methylxanthine on serotonin neurons. [1]
Or take alcohol, which people typically associate only with GABA:
>Among the neurotransmitter systems linked to the reinforcing effects of alcohol are dopamine, endogenous opiates (i.e., morphinelike neurotransmitters), GABA, serotonin, and glutamate acting at the NMDA receptor (Koob 1996).
Two other things, first the notion that depression can be reduced down to a deficiency of neurotransmitters is almost certainly an oversimplification (if not outright incorrect). What we have is correlation, not causation, where GABA, stress hormones, and other mechanisms also show up. Second, even if this characterization of "low on neurotransmitters => depression" is correct, it is not and has never been just about serotonin:
>The monoamine-deficiency theory posits that the underlying pathophysiological basis of depression is a depletion of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine or dopamine in the central nervous system. [2]
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