What is the chemical responsible for happiness?

No such animal, although the endorphins are opiate analogues.

Lots of people swear it is C2H5OH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol)

“There is a vast literature—and billions of dollars of underlying scientific studies showing that people who are happy have high levels of a chemical called “serotonin” in their brain.”

source

Correlation is not causation, @Allie. All those people have 10 fingers and toes, too.

In fairness, @pdworkin, after I use a wood chipper, I count how many fingers I have left. If it’s 10, I do feel pretty happy.

If you’ve ever read about and/or taken MDMA, youd know its serotonin.

@chris6137 Let me know when you get that paper published, I’d love to go over your data.

Interesting question. Here’s how I would attack it: instead of looking at information about brain chemicals or looking at information about happiness, why not look at articles that will talk about stuff that affects those brain chemicals to cause happiness?

And by that of course I mean drugs. A lot of different narcotic drugs will give you different flavors of elation or happiness, and we have a pretty good idea of what neurotransmitters those drugs act on.

There is a reason that the chemical 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine is called “Ecstasy.” Because it makes you feel pretty damn great. Wikipedia sums up its effects nicely:

The effects of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, commonly known as “ecstasy”) on the human brain and body are complex, interacting with several neurochemical systems. It induces serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine release, and can act directly on a number of receptors, including a2-adrenergic (adrenaline) and 5HT2A(serotonin) receptors[1]. MDMA promotes the release of several hormones including prolactin, oxytocin, ACTH, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin…

So there’s another, more straighforward drug you could look at: benzoylmethylecgonine. Here’s a summary of the neurotransmitters involved with cocaine use:

The pharmacodynamics of cocaine involve the complex relationships of neurotransmitters (inhibiting monoamine uptake in rats with ratios of about: serotonin:dopamine = 2:3, serotonin:norepinephrine = 2:5[50]) The most extensively studied effect of cocaine on the central nervous system is the blockade of the dopamine transporter protein

Now one point that isn’t addressed by either of those summaries it that the action of a particular neurotransmitter depends entirely on the receptor to which it binds. When you take a drug that acts on the serotonin 2A receptor, you can induce hallucinations; other drugs that acts on other receptors are used to treat depression, or anxiety, or sleep disorders.

I don’t think any good scientist could boil “happiness” down to one chemical alone. These are all part of a complex system that’s dynamically interacting at every second—it’s impossible to change one chemical without affecting all of those downstream of it, and then upstream by way of retrograde messenger systems.

The best you could do is to say that happiness is induced by the right combination of chemicals acting on the right combination of receptors.

yeah what @nikipedia said.

@nikipedia Very detailed, thank you. I figured it wouldn’t be as simple as I’d like it to.

@gggritso: No problem :) If you ever have other questions about neuroscience, talking about brains is my very favorite thing to do.

What @nikipedia said, I was going to say the same thing.. it’s not one chemical, it’s a complex dance of several. This is part of the reason different antidepressants work differently on different people.

For me? Beer.

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol

(Though, not really for me.)

@gggritso Which came first the chemical(s) or the happiness? I would think it was an earlier form of happiness. I would assume it was both physical and mental and it had evolutionary leverage for the future. We need to get back to that!

Chocolate

You are probably referring to neuromodulators. Important for happiness are serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline and endorphines.

There are “pleasure” chemicals like endorphins and seratonin, but none that have a lasting long-term impact. Some anti-depressant medications attempt to build up seratonin levels or block the reverse chemicals. These often do not work at all or work only mildly or on a short term basis. As with any mood-altering chemical, one develops a tolereance to them and greater dosage or stimulation is required to achieve the same result.Some people seem to be naturally dysthemic and attempts to be “happy” are a futile tail-chasing exercise.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Thank you for the reference to Dysthymia. It clears up a lot of confusion in discussions about “how to be happy”. When there is a diagnosis of a psychological disorder, the usual answers to cheer people up do not apply.

@YARNLADY People telling those with such disorders to “just cheer up” actually makes the situation worse, since that adds a guilt trip on top of everything else.