Episode 126: Depression and Serotonin
The Science of Everything Podcast
00:00
Serotonin and Brain Derivative Neurotrophic Factor
There are a number of lines of evidence which indicate that there are cellular level differences between depressed and normal brains. Post-mortem analysis of depressed subjects has found that glial cell density and neuronal size is reduced in certain regions of the brain. It's also been found that chronic administrations of providing serotonin and reuptake inhibitors for a long period of time helps to increase adult neurogenesis in depressed patients. If we irradiate the hippocampus, that's one of the brain regions I mentioned before that's associated with both serotonin activity and depression as well. The function of the hippocampus is necessary in order for antidepressants to be beneficial.
Transcript
Play full episode
