Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Neither serotonin disorder is at the core of depression nor dopamine at the core of schizophrenia; still these are biologically based mental disorders

Molecular Psychiatry (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Recently a review that dismisses the serotonin theory of depression has been published in your journal [1]. That article concludes that these findings dispute the existence of any biological substrate behind the clinical manifestations of depression, and question the usefulness of antidepressant treatment.

Four issues should be pointed out here:

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Moncrieff J, Cooper RE, Stockmann T, Amendola S, Hengartner MP, Horowitz MA. The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence. Mol Psychiatry. 2023;28:3243–56.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Fountoulakis KN, Gonda X, Andreoulakis E, Fokas K, Iacovides A. No differences between drug naive and drug experienced unipolar depressed patients in terms of neurobiological testing: a cross sectional study. J Psychiatr Res. 2013;47:1984–90.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Leucht S, Tardy M, Komossa K, Heres S, Kissling W, Salanti G, et al. Antipsychotic drugs versus placebo for relapse prevention in schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2012;379:2063–71.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Fountoulakis KN, Moeller HJ, Kasper S, Tamminga C, Yamawaki S, Kahn R, et al. The report of the joint WPA/CINP workgroup on the use and usefulness of antipsychotic medication in the treatment of schizophrenia. CNS Spectrums. 2021;26:562–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Fountoulakis KN, Veroniki AA, Siamouli M, Moller HJ. No role for initial severity on the efficacy of antidepressants: results of a multi-meta-analysis. Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2013;12:26.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Fountoulakis KN, Moller HJ. Are antidepressants clinically useful? Conclusion of a decade of debate. World Psychiatry. 2014;13:201–2.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Fountoulakis KN. Culturally sanctioned “scientific pluralism” opens the backdoor for the supernatural in Psychiatry. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2022;145:109–10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Fountoulakis KN. Should denialism of mental illness and its treatment be included among conspiracy theories? Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2021;271:591–3.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Fountoulakis KN, Tohen M. Interpreting the findings of a meta-analysis of psychosocial interventions in bipolar disorder. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021;78:447–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Cuijpers P, Karyotaki E, Andersson G, Li J, Mergl R, Hegerl U. The effects of blinding on the outcomes of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for adult depression: a meta-analysis. Eur Psychiatry. 2015;30:685–93.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 3rd Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis

  2. “Agios Charalambos” Mental Health Clinic, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Eva Maria Tsapakis

Authors
  1. Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Eva Maria Tsapakis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

KNF conceived the idea and wrote the first draft, EMT contributed to revisions of the manuscript and both authors to the final text.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Both authors have received honoraria for speeches and support for travel and accommodation to participate in congresses by the pharma industry, including Jannssen, Lilly, Bristol-Myers, Astra-Zeneca, and others.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fountoulakis, K.N., Tsapakis, E.M. Neither serotonin disorder is at the core of depression nor dopamine at the core of schizophrenia; still these are biologically based mental disorders. Mol Psychiatry (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02458-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02458-z

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links