Given that Serotonin was discovered as recently as 1948 (in blood serum) researchers have done well to come up with an explanation of what Serotonin is and what it appears to do. The current, constantly expanding definition is necessarily expressed in the language of biochemists so it is difficult for the rest of us to understand and its significance is hard to grasp unless we are familiar with the terms. Biochemists should look away now for between you and me we make most sense of their explanation by likening Serotonin in the brain to water in the car… but we are open to other explanatory suggestions. In our analogy both water and Serotonin are ‘utility’ substances necessary in a wide range of disparate applications for the efficient functioning of certain devices at certain sites for a specific duration.

In the car water is a ‘utility’ substance with different effects on different car components according to where it is, in what quantity and for how long. Water has to be present in relatively large quantity as coolant in the radiator, in smaller quantity and with different additives in the screen – wash reservoir, in still smaller quantity but purer form in the battery, in much smaller quantity in the lubricating oil, only as a tiny trace in the fuel and, ideally, not at all in the Electronic Control Unit. People know all this or can look it up and some can even apply objective test and measure to ensure that the right amount of water is at the right place at the right time.

In the brain, all Serotonin production, distribution and action takes place as it has throughout our evolutionary history, without our knowledge and completely beyond our conscious control. The clusters of Serotonin receptors in the brain are messy, biological bundles of vaguely neighbouring cells, nothing like the clearly defined and finite components of the car and there is no question of us as individuals directly measuring the quantity of Serotonin at any particular receptor site at any particular time, in our own living brain.

Drugs which alter Serotonin levels in the brain have been extensively explored by pharmaceutical manufacturers supplying the medical profession, primarily to try to find a cure for depressive illness. Depression is a truly dreadful experience and its attendant anxieties, fears, lethargy and confidence-sapping symptoms are very serious handicaps. Consequently there is great pressure on doctors and their drug suppliers to find a chemical cure for depression and many drugs which, one way or another, alter Serotonin levels at Serotonin receptor sites have been and still are marketed as anti-depressants.

Our latest download explains how Serotonin is impacted by taking different drugs (both legal and illegal), and the they have on health and mental state.