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Measuring serotonin reuptake

OK.  So serotonin reuptake levels are relevant to depression.  Then why, during decades of titration and drug switching, were there no tests (blood, brain scans, et. al.) performed on me?  If  the name of the game was to reduce and/or increase reuptake, how come no “measurement” tests were performed? Do such tests exist? If there is anything to the theory, there is a need to determine OBJECTIVELY, and not merely by implementation of subjective scaling (“Do you ‘feel’ any less depressed?”) whether or not the uptake has been modified.  No scans were ever taken.  No blood work was ever performed on me.  I was under the care of numerous psychiatrists.  All they ever did was say things to the effect of: “Well, let’s try this drug”, “Well let’s try  increasing the dosage”.  This was not medical science.  Science involves measurable, verifiable, objective analysis.  
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6726276 tn?1421126668
Great comment!
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Avatar universal
Serotonin is not tied at all to depression.  This was a lie spread by Eli Lilly when they first introduced Prozac.  By now this is common knowledge.  What is true is that blocking the breakdown of serotonin by blocking the enzyme the body uses to evacuate used serotonin from the body (the body always prefers freshly made) and, second, concentrating the serotonin to a small number of selected receptors (shutting down the others, which is thought to a least in part cause the withdrawal when you stop taking these drugs as the shut-down receptors reawaken and try to start working again) the effects of serotonin on mood are concentrated.  This is what the drugs do when they work, though to work you have to metabolize them well (the liver often blocks this, which is why some drugs work and others don't do anything at all -- the body tries to block the action of most pharmaceuticals because they aren't food or like food and so the body interprets them as toxins).  That's why it's trial and error, but so is aspirin -- works for some, not for others.  Some only need one tablet or a half, others need two.  The only objective tests would be to test you liver metabolites (some psychiatrists will do this for a price) to make sure you'll be able to use the drug, and some believe in all kinds of other markers such as EEG tests, but in the end it's still all trial and error because we don't know what causes depression or anxiety biologically yet and the drugs are just to make you feel better, not cure you.
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