Letters: September 2001

Happiness in a bottle? Gary Greenberg's article "The Serotonin Surprise" [July] provided a deeper look into the effects of commonly prescribed antidepressants. The observation that neurogenesis strongly coincides with the effects of antidepressants is far from a comprehensive understanding of these drugs. In brain function, quantitative changes (an increase or decrease in neurons, for instance) contain almost no information without knowledge of the topology, connections, and type of activity. What evokes new neurons into action, where the information is conducted to, whether the neurons are all the same, and whether they keep the same characteristics over time are questions that need to be answered. Neurogenesis may also be the cause of common side effects of antidepressants. Psychiatrist Joseph Glenmullen's concern about the drugs' toxicity over the long term should extend beyond their serotonin-boosting effects. Since no drug is 100 percent selective, long-term effects— especially when high doses are taken— may result from chronic activity at other binding sites.