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Review
. 2023 Mar;37(3):237-241.
doi: 10.1177/02698811231161813. Epub 2023 Mar 20.

Fifty years on: Serotonin and depression

Sameer Jauhar  1 , Philip J Cowen  2 , Michael Browning  2
Affiliations
Review

Fifty years on: Serotonin and depression

Sameer Jauhar et al. J Psychopharmacol. 2023 Mar.

Abstract

It has been over 50 years since the original serotonin hypothesis was proposed by the British Psychiatrist Alec Coppen. Recently, some authors have questioned the validity of the hypothesis. In this narrative review, we summarise the evidence for the serotonin hypothesis of depression, focusing on psychopharmacology and molecular imaging, as well as systems-level neuroscience.

Keywords: Serotonin; depression; learning; positron emission tomography; psychopharmacology.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: SJ has given non-promotional talks on antipsychotics for Lundbeck, Janssen and Sunovian. M Browning has received travel expenses from Lundbeck for attending conferences, and has acted as a consultant for J&J, Novartis, P1vital Ltd and CHDR. He owns shares in P1vtial Products Ltd.

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