It's difficult to put down my thoughts in words, but still I m going to try....

Whitaker points out that the information presented to the general public about the cause of depression/bipolar disorder/schizophrenia is false. But I was wondering…he does not speak anything about the real causation, doesn’t mention if scientists are trying to research what may be actually causing these disorders if less/more than normal levels of serotonin/dopamine/norepinephrine is not responsible for them.

I initially thought that maybe a lower than normal no. of vescicles on the pre-synaptic neurorn releasing less serotonin/adequate no. of vescicles on the pre-synaptic neuron but still releasing less than normal amount of serotonin maybe responsible which would still support the serotonin theory. But Whitaker rules that out. Whitaker also rules out that a less than normal no. of post-synaptic serotonin receptors may be responsible.

So does it have something to do with the pulse that helps in signal transmission from the pre-synaptic neuron to the post-synaptic neuron? Somehow is the pulse below the threshold level for the signal to be transmitted? What are the factors that may prevent the pulse from reaching the threshold value? ….Well I forgot my undergrad material about neural conduction and synaptic transmission…I have to read it up again before I can discuss this in detail. I have a book on Biopsychology by Pinel. I m going to read it and come back here and discuss the issue in detail.

Also I didn’t understand how serotonin staying longer in the synapse can help in signal transmission from the pre-synaptic to the post-synaptic neuron. Maybe I’ll find out about it in my Biopsychology book as well.