Note by HealthWrights staff:
A number of powerful social factors have supported the hypothesis that most serious problems in living can be reduced to biochemical causes:
- 1.The theory provides huge profits for phamecuticals.
- 2.The drug therapies provide a powerful tool in the arsenel of social control needed by the dominant forces in society.
- 3.The theory fits nicely with the reductionistic manner of understanding psychologically and socially meaningful behavior.
- 4.Blaming it all on chemical brain problems helps society in its effort to ignore the social factors that create personal unhappiness.
Yet, as is so often the case, it is money rather than either science or human need that determines social policy. This note by Alliance For Human Research Protection illustrates these points.
A Note on the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression and Schizophrenia
ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION A Catalyst for Public Debate: Promoting Openness, Full Disclosure, andAccountability http://www.ahrp.oorg
FYIA study that attempted to replicate the "seminal" study that laid thefoundation for psychiatry's "serotonin theory" of depression, claiming agenetic- serotonin impairment underlying depression, has been debunked bythe data from 14 similar studies claiming a genetic underpinning todepression. The study, reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association,"found no evidence of an association between the serotonin gene and the riskof depression, no matter what people's life experience was." The real riskfor depression is NOT BIOLOGICAL: Dr. Merikangas, the senior author saidthe findings show that "a major stressful event, like divorce, in itselfraised the risk of depression by 40 percent."
Dr. Kenneth Kendler, a prominent authority on psychiatry and human geneticsat Virginia Commonwealth University, says that the new study "really takesthe wind out of its sales" referring to the widely accepted claim thatdepression is linked to a genetic predisposition.
"I think what happened is that people who'd been working in this field forso long were desperate to have any solid finding," Kathleen R. Merikangas,chief of the genetic epidemiology research branch of the National Instituteof Mental Health and senior author of the new analysis, said in a phoneinterview. "It was exciting, and some peoplethought it was the finding in psychiatry, a major advance."
Psychiatry is replete with invalid biochemical assumptions--that are, uponexamination, contradicted by the data and life experience. But not beforethose false assumptions have spurred the use of extremely toxic, harmfulinterventions that have caused patients irreparable physiological and mentalharm. Indeed, the "chemical imbalance" theory is the cornerstone for prescribingserotonin boosting drugs for depression, and dopamine depleting drugs forschizophrenia. The literature is flooded with biased, scientifically invalidreports by psychiatrists who receive large sums of money from psychoactivedrug manufacturers.
Serotonin-enhancing antidepressants have never been shown to be effectivefor most people the treatment of clinical depression--but they have causedserious toxicity--including serotonin syndrome which is often misdiagnosedand has a high risk of death--e.g., Libby Zion and Andy Warhol. See: Videoabout Yankee Scatman, Leslie Cohen, who died from undiagnosed serotoninsyndrome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egfXW74LMi8
The other major unproven assumption underlies the use of neuroleptics(a.k.a. antipsychotics) to treat schizophrenia: the "dopamine theory" whichassumes--again, without evidence--that schizophrenia is caused by highlevels of dopamine which require life-long dopamine-depleting drugs. Amongthe dozens of severe adverse effects caused by both the old and newneuroleptics is Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome, which has killed countlesspatients.
The myths crafted by psychiatry in collusion with drug manufacturers aboutthe clinical superiority and cost-effectiveness of the atypicalantipsychotics--which were deemed "very safe & effective" was shattered bythe results of the NIMH-sponsored CATIE schizophrenia outcomes study, whichdocumented the drugs' intolerable effects and lack of clinical efficacy. Indeed, the CATIE results forced psychiatry's leading schizophreniaresearchers to acknowledge that the drugs offered no improvement over theold cheap neuroleptics (at low doses) and they cause profound physical harm.Psychiatrists gave themselves a pass saying they were "beguiled" by thepromise and industry's aggressive marketing! See:http://www.ahrp.oorg/cms/content/view/353/110/
However, empirical findings have not caused institutional psychiatry or itspractitioners to change the failed, lethal, paradigm of care which remainswelded to Big Pharma's marketing agenda--the flow of cash continues todictate psychiatry's prescribing practices.
Worse still is that psychiatry in tandem with drug manufacturers haveexpanded the market for antidepressants and antipsychotics for healthychildren whose physical and mental health are seriously harmed by thesetoxic drugs. In light of the compelling indisputable evidence that there is no geneticpredisposition for depression or other mental problems, there is norationale for mental health screening initiatives--unless, we are preparedto rectify life's adversities from children's and pregnant women's lives.
Quetion: Will the Obama administration put a stop to an ill conceived, andnow thoroughly unsupportable policy of screening followed by drugging ofchildren for presumed depression?
Contact: Vera Hassner Sharavveracare@ahrp.org212-595-8974