Tourette’s Sufferer here… I read a publication that stated ‘Serotonin binding is increased in Tourette’s disorder’… I’ve read and re-read the article and tried learning about ‘binding’ but cannot understand what it means in that article… does it mean Tourette’s patients have more Serotonin flying around or less Serotonin… what is binding?
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Serotonin is a chemical that carries messages between different nerve cells.
There is a small gap between the nerve cells, so a message reaches one end of the nerve cell, which gets that nerve cell to release serotonin.
The serotonin molecules then travel across the little teeny gap to the next nerve cell, where they join on to it. That is called ‘binding’.
So what you read indicates that in people with Tourette’s, serotonin can join onto the nerve cells more easily and more molecules can do it.
[Here is a more in depth explanation with diagram](https://www.savemyexams.co.uk/gcse/biology/edexcel/18/revision-notes/2-cells–control/2-4-co-ordination–response/2-4-4-synapses/)
[This paper](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-37710-4) from 2019 actually says that serotonin binding is normal in people with Tourette’s. However, it says that for people with both Tourette’s AND Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, it is actually *lower* (not higher).
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