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Serotonin

What is serotonin?

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter whose dysregulation may underlie the negative symptoms and high rates of depression seen in people with schizophrenia. Supporting this, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been found to be effective in treating the negative symptoms of the disorder.  Furthermore, acute tryptophan depletion, a dietary manipulation that lowers brain serotonin (5-HT) synthesis, has been shown to worsen negative symptoms.

What is the evidence on serotonin?

Moderate to high quality evidence found a medium-sized effect of elevated prefrontal serotonin 5-HT1A receptors in people with schizophrenia compared to people without schizophrenia. Moderate quality evidence also found a medium to large effect of reduced prefrontal serotonin 5-HT2A receptors in people with schizophrenia.

October 2020

Last updated at: 3:39 am, 27th October 2020
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Fact Sheet Technical Commentary

NeuRA Libraries

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Orange - Topic summary is being compiled.
Red - Topic summary has no current systematic review available.