Customer Reviews

5-HTP: The Serotonin Connection: The Exciting New Approach to Overcoming Depression, Reducing Anxiety, and Controlling Your Appetite

While it is undoubtedly true that serotonin plays a major role in psychological well-being, its interaction with dopamine, norepinephrine, and other neurotransmitters in overall brain activity is still poorly understood. This is the reason that most SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibiters) have a statement in their inserts concerning the limited knowledge of their activities in the brain.

This book is, I fear, another of those "take this you'll feel better" brands of literature. No chemical has that capability, to which the people who take cocaine and heroin can attest. Because serotonin is a natural brain chemical does not alter that fact.

This book does not mention the serotonin syndrome, a serious, sometimes fatal effect of the long-term use of certain SSRIs. That serotonin plays a necessary role in the brain's activities is well documented; that it is a panacea is not.

Those seeking real, positive change in their lives will not find them in this, or for that matter any, book. "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your god" A 2500 year old guide to happiness which still works.

As a person with a severe, chronic, bipolar disorder ,and a former training specialist in scientific operations for a large pharmaceutical company, I can attest to the limited role of chemicals, natural and synthetic, in making you happy. That they are sometimes necessary is indisputable, this book seems to assert that they can actually lead to a "happy" life. As my psychiatrist once stated " we are all hopelessly human". Nothing we can ingest can change that fact.