Welcome to Quantum Magazine's podcast.

Each episode, we bring you stories about developments in science and mathematics.

I'm Susan Vallett.

Depression has often been blamed on low levels of serotonin in the brain.

That answer is insufficient, but alternatives are coming into view and changing our understanding of the disease.

That's next.

Space travel depends on clever math.

Find unexplored solar systems in Quantum Magazine's new daily math game, Hyperjumps. HyperJumps challenges you to find simple number combinations to get your rocket from one exoplanet to the next. Spoiler alert, there's always more than one way to win. Test your astral arithmetic at hyperjumps.comptomagazine.org. People often think that they know what

causes chronic depression. Surveys show that more than 80% of the public blames a chemical imbalance

in the brain. That idea is widespread in pop psychology and cited in research papers and

medical textbooks. The unbalanced brain chemical in question is serotonin, an important neurotransmitter

with fabled feel-good effects. Serotonin helps regulate systems in the brain that control everything

from body temperature and sleep to sex drive and hunger.

For decades, it's also been touted as the pharmaceutical MVP for fighting depression.

Widely prescribed medications like Prozac or the generic fluoxetine are designed to treat chronic depression by raising serotonin levels.

Yet the causes of depression go far beyond serotonin deficiency.

Clinical studies have repeatedly concluded that the role of serotonin in depression has been overstated.

Indeed, the entire premise of the chemical imbalance

theory may be wrong, despite the relief that Prozac seems to bring to many patients.

A literature review that appeared in molecular psychiatry in July of 2022 was the latest and

perhaps loudest death now for the serotonin hypothesis,

at least in its simplest form. An international team of scientists led by Joanna Moncrief

...