Depression and Anxiety Are Not Caused by a Serotonin Deficiency
For decades, we’ve been told that anxiety and depression are caused by a “chemical imbalance”—a lack of serotonin in the brain. But this explanation simply isn’t true. Leading psychiatrists and researchers now agree that this theory is outdated and unsupported by science.
Tim Kendall, a respected psychiatrist and advisor to the British government, puts it bluntly: “I’ve reviewed the data, and it’s garbage.” Studies as far back as the 1970s found no significant difference in serotonin levels between people with depression and those without. What’s more, attempts to artificially lower serotonin in healthy individuals failed to create depressive symptoms—and some even reported feeling better.