Physiological Marker found in Teen Girls who Cut
Wednesday June 21, 2006
Psychologists at the University of Washington have discovered that teenage girls who engage in self-harm behaviors such as cutting themselves have lower levels of serotonin in their blood. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is also implicated in depression, The adolescents also had reduced levels of "respiratory sinus arrhythmia" a measure of "the ebb and flow of heart rate along with breathing". The study suggests links these teenage cutting behaviors with the possible later development of borderline personality disorder; and suggests that both groups have difficulty modulating their emotions.
Comments
I just read an article here that stated, “Drug Ads and Drug Science Are Sometimes Very Different
Pharmaceutical companies in the U.S have marketed SSRI antidepressants as medications that correct an imbalance in brain chemistry. These ads often describe depression as being caused by low levels of serotinin and other chemicals in the brain. Science has repeatedly failed to find such an imbalance.” Are we suppposed to believe that “that teenage girls who engage in self-harm behaviors such as cutting themselves have lower levels of serotonin in their blood. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is also implicated in depression”? Those two articles seem to be somewhat incongruent. Or, I’m not reading these articles correctly.
Excellent point. As I understand it the low serotonin levels were being used to note that there is an actual physiological process that is happening here. It does not by any means suggest that these young persons cut themselves *because* they have low levels of this particular chemical.
These different researchers do seem to be coming at things from very different angles.