I see that I have been remiss in not alerting PT readers to my recent book review (of Generosity: An Enhancement, by Richard Powers) in Slate. In it, I refer to changing assessments of the much-discussed serotonin transporter gene and the ability of favorable variants to protect against the effects of stress.

As I indicate in the essay, from the start I had doubts that a strong version of the finding - two long alleles provide absolute protection against stress-induced depression - would hold up. I made this point both in Against Depression and in an op-ed in the New York Times. But I would like to underscore what I suggest only in passing in Slate: Neither am I fully convinced by the recent debunking of the stress-protection hypothesis. Many minor studies, at the periphery of the depression literature, suggest that variants of the gene do confer partial immunity from the lingering effects of adversity. My own guess is that in time variants of the serotonin transporter gene will be found to play protective and permissive roles with regard to mood disorders but that the effects will be more subtle or limited than enthusiasts had at first anticipated.