MODEM

Depression is a common and serious mental health condition that affects millions of people worldwide. One popular theory is that depression is partly caused by low levels of a chemical called serotonin in the brain, and drugs that increase serotonin levels can help treat it. However, some studies show that these drugs might not work much better than sugar pills. Some experts think that depression is a complicated condition and other chemicals in the brain are probably involved too. MODEM has therefore been designed to further investigate what parts of the brain and what chemicals in the brain are involved in unipolar and bipolar depression. This can help diagnose people experiencing depression more accurately in the future. Moreover, this may lead to the development of new medications which ultimately treat depression more effectively than current existing drugs.

Read the full article on the serotonin debate written by dr Hannah Devlin in the Guardian here:

The great serotonin debate: do depression treatments work by boosting the happy hormone? Drugs targeting the ‘happy hormone’ are widely used for depression. But some question whether the condition is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain