“the main criticisms of Kaplitt’s study note that depression is much more complicated than a single gene, protein, or receptor.”
Is this backed up by some research or is it just an example of the fear of taking the human mind off of its holy throne? You know, the feeling in a lot of people that the mind (or is it ‘soul’?) is a grand and impenetrable mystery that science will never get to the heart of, so they’re afraid to find simple physical explenations for mental phenomena. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a case of depression where the serotonin level was not low, so what’s to say that serotonin is not the main – or even the only – culprit? (I mean clinical depression here, not just sadness.)
Even if the research is scarce I know there is at least some indication that DMT, while not helping the brain to produce serotonin, somehow makes the brain more receptive to the serotonin it already produces – and there are people who have reported getting rid of long term depression almost over night after taking DMT (extracted, or in one of it’s traditional forms, like ayahuasca). As far as I know there is no indication in these cases that anything besides serotonin is responsible for this on the level of the brain. Unfortunately most of what there is to read about DMT is not very scientific, but is new age nonsense from people who think it is an inherently spiritual substance allowing the soul to travel to different dimensions and times, meeting angels, aliens, demons, God, yourself etc – not to mention how it is responsible for the reincarnation of the soul in the pineal gland on the 49th day of fetal development.