Why don't antidepressants work in some patients?
According to researcher, Silvia Poggini (Istituto Superiore di Sanità , Rome), "There is no doubt that antidepressants work for many people, but for between 30 and 50% of depressed people, antidepressants don't work. No-one knows why. This work may explain part of the reason." The researchers have proposed that simply increasing the levels of serotonin, by taking an SSRI, does not cause a recovery from depression, but puts the brain into a condition where change can take place -- it increases the plasticity of the brain, making it more open to being changed. "In a certain way it seems that the SSRIs open the brain to being moved from a fixed state of unhappiness, to a condition where other circumstances can determine whether or not you recover" said Ms Poggini. According to the researchers, it is the environmental conditions you find yourselves in at the time of the treatment which determines whether you are likely to get better or worse. To test this, the...