You can find videos and articles (madinamerica.com, very anti med and anti psychiatry) that say it is not true and that actually antidepressants cause brain cell death. They say the studies are flawed. That the method they used to show neurogenesis did not show that the cells survived to maturity. This is not true. There is neurogenesis, cell proliferation, cell migration, cell maturity, and increases in hippocampus volume.
Frontiers | Primum Non Nocere: An Evolutionary Analysis of Whether Antidepressants Do More Harm than Good | Evolutionary Psychology and Neuroscience
The article above (it has sources) is based on a theory in evolution that evolution and natural selection evolve adaptations that work very well and reach finely tuned homeostasis. If you mess with this homeostasis you cause problems. I would argue that those of us with mental illness have maladaptive processes and do not have finely tuned homeostasis in some areas. The article assumes from the start that we are all perfectly adapted human beings. We are not. The nature of disease means structure, function, adaption, and homeostasis is whacked and intervention is needed. I know a guy who has been running marathons, biking hundreds of miles and eating an optimal diet for years. He just had a heart attack in his fifties. I have had nurses and doctors tell me that for some people they can do all the exercise and good diet in the world and still get clogged arteries because of genetics. That is not homeostasis or a perfectly adaptive bio process.
Here is a very good article below (with sources) that explain the problem with some of the studies, how they were overcome and how methods showed cell proliferation, migration, and maturity. It defines the terms and explains the techniques that go beyond cell division. This is from 2004.
Implications of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in antidepressant action
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An increasing body of evidence from both clinical and basic research makes a compelling case for antidepressants working to reverse the negative effects of stress on hippocampal function. Future research should focus on the use of animal models of depression to more fully understand how the induction of cell proliferation and neurogenesis relates to antidepressant-induced behaviour. On a cellular and molecular level, understanding the mechanisms regulating hippocampal cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the stressed and antidepressant-treated animal will be critical.
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This study below really gets into the weeds using different methods of identifying neurogenesis and looking at different parts of the hippocampus. It is from 2013
Neuropsychopharmacology - Hippocampal Granule Neuron Number and Dentate Gyrus Volume in Antidepressant-Treated and Untreated Major Depression
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We report for the first time an association of untreated MDD with fewer mature GNs in anterior hippocampal DG, as well as smaller DG and GCL volume. Maturation or survival of neuronal progenitor cells in the DG may be impaired in MDD, and our data are consistent with the hypothesis that antidepressant action may reverse this effect. How cell number and volume relate to clinical characteristics and severity of depression and how antidepressant action affects hippocampal structural plasticity, require in vivo animal studies and in vivo longitudinal studies of hippocampal structure in patients.
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