Serotonin: Vital affects and psychotherapy

Abstract

Including biological measures such as the serotonin function to the outcome variables of psychotherapy opens novel perspectives, which may enable better integration of diagnostic and neurobiological aspects with psychotherapy research. However, the problems of epistemology, ontology and the conceptual differences pertaining to such interdisciplinary efforts have to be adequately considered in order to avoid confusion between the different explanatory models used in neurobiological and clinical psychotherapy research. A number of studies have already shown that psychotherapy can be connected with significant changes in the function of brain networks. Recently, preliminary evidence has been gained that also changes in the synaptic transmission in serotonin pathways may take place during the psychotherapy of patients with depression. Although these findings have to be repeated and confirmed in future research with larger patient samples, it seems likely that in selected individuals, especially in those with atypical symptoms of depression, the reduced serotonin function can be normalized during psychotherapy.

Keywords:

• psychotherapy research
• neurobiological research
• outcome
• serotonin
• epistemology

Acknowledgments

This study is supported by a grant from the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, Helsinki, Finland.