Carmine Pariante may be the most important scientist you’ve never heard of. He is a professor of biological psychiatry at King’s College, London, as well as being warm, charming, Catholic by upbringing and an Italian originally from Naples. For the past decade, his research has been at the cutting edge of the science of happiness. In particular, his work on the links between inflammation and depression is fascinating for those, like me, who have a history of anxiety.
The jury is still out as to the exact causes of depression, but some scientists like Prof Pariante are questioning the simplistic explanation that blames “a chemical imbalance in our brains” and low levels of serotonin in particular. While serotonin has some role to play, exactly what is happening when we succumb to the Black Dog may be more nuanced and different for each of us and is now thought to affect the whole body rather than just the brain.
