Antidepressants Affect People's Moral Behavior, Study Finds

vmarsy · on July 3, 2015

Interesting!

tl;dr?

  More serotonine -> Better moral behavior
  More dopamine   -> Worse  moral behavior

People with gambling problem and risk seeking behavior have high dopamine levels [1].

High serotonine is achived with good mood, physical exercise, getting some sunlight,...[2] People with low serotonine can be more aggressive [3]

link to the paper: http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(15)0...

  Highlights:
  Serotonin and dopamine had distinct effects on decisions to harm self versus others
  •Computational models revealed a hyperaltruistic preference to harm self over others
  •Pharmacological enhancement of serotonin increased harm aversion for self and others
  •Pharmacological enhancement of dopamine reduced hyperaltruism

[1] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100201171517.ht...

[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2077351/

[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19802333