Serotonin and depression: a disconnect between the advertisements and the scientific literature

Many ads for SSRI antidepressants claim that the drugs boost brain serotonin levels. Lacasse and Leo argue there is little scientific evidence to support this claim.

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPLoS medicine Vol. 2; no. 12; p. e392
Main Authors Lacasse, Jeffrey R, Leo, Jonathan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 01.12.2005
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Advertising
Advertising campaigns
Antidepressants
Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use
Anxiety Disorders (Including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)
Brain research
Clinical trials
Community Participation
Consumer advertising
Depression - drug therapy
Depression - physiopathology
Drugs and Adverse Drug Reactions
Humans
Hypotheses
Medical research
Mental depression
Mental disorders
Mental Health
Mood Disorders (Including Depression)
Neurosciences
Other
Pharmaceutical industry
Pharmacology/Drug Discovery
Psychiatry
R&D
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Research & development
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors - therapeutic use
Serotonin
Serotonin - metabolism
Serotonin - physiology
Suicides & suicide attempts
Television advertising
United States
United States Food and Drug Administration
United States
United States > US
Serotonin
United States
Consumer Participation
Humans
United States Food & Drug Administration
Depression
Advertising as Topic
Antidepressive Agents
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors
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Summary:Many ads for SSRI antidepressants claim that the drugs boost brain serotonin levels. Lacasse and Leo argue there is little scientific evidence to support this claim.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-3
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ObjectType-Review-1
Competing Interests: The authors declare that no competing interests exist and that they received no funding for this work.
Jeffrey R. Lacasse is at Florida State University College of Social Work, Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America. Jonathan Leo is at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Bradenton, Florida, United States of America.
ISSN:1549-1676
1549-1277
1549-1676
DOI:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020392