Chronic adversity dampens dopamine production
Interesting finding, but the headline doesn’t quite match the study. They didn’t find that chronic adversity dampens dopamine production in general, nor did they find that the stressed individuals had less dopamine than their unstressed peers per se. They only discovered that dopamine production differed between the two groups in response to a specific stressful task.<p>In other words, the chronically stressed individuals had a different response to stress, which involved less dopamine production than that of their less stressed peers. It’s not clear how much of this is actually a negative adaption, as opposed to just being a different way of responding.<p>It’s also important to consider the context provided by the researchers in the article:<p><pre><code>  “This study can’t prove that chronic psychosocial stress
  causes mental illness or substance abuse later in life by
  lowering dopamine levels,” Dr Bloomfield cautions. “But we
  have provided a plausible mechanism for how chronic stress
  may increase the risk of mental illnesses by altering the
  brain’s dopamine system.”
</code></pre>
With studies like this, it’s important to avoid the knee-jerk reaction that you might need “more dopamine”. More is not always better, and we have decades of research demonstrating that dopaminergic drugs are not great antidepressants. When considering your own treatment programs, it’s important to focus on evidence-based medicine and proven, sustainable treatments and therapies.