Last year I covered the case of a young man born with a genetic disorder which caused him to suffer low levels of the monoamine neurotransmitters - serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline.
These are the chemicals that are widely thought to be deficient in depression, and they're the target of antidepressant drugs (especially serotonin).
If low monoamines cause depression, you'd expect someone with low monoamines to be depressed, at least on the simplest view. But the case from last year had no reported mood problems, although he did show appetite, sleep and concentration problems that were cured by serotonin replacement therapy.
Now a new case report has just appeared that tells a different story. Gabriella Horvath and colleagues from British Columbia describe two sisters. Both had a normal birth and childhood, but at the ages of 11 and 15 respectively, began to suffer severe migraines and other symptoms. Sister 1:
started ...
