Indoctrinating people into taking antidepressants

People are being misled about the nature of mental illness. Of course brain abnormalities can cause organic mental illness, such as delirium or dementia. But most presentations of mental health problems are not caused by brain abnormalities. 

Using depression as an example, people have been encouraged to see depression as a chemical imbalance in the brain. Because SSRI antidepressants are said specifically to block reuptake of serotonin from the synaptic cleft between neurones, it has been suggested that they must be correcting a serotonin deficiency in the brain. Although doctors may have realised that such an explanation of the effect of antidepressants is at least an oversimplification, they have allowed the general public to go along with the idea. In fact people have often believed the chemical imbalance theory to be proven. They have accepted, even been told, this myth to provide a reason for needing to take their antidepressants. Hence the controversy created by Joanna Moncrieff’s recent book Chemically imbalanced: The making and unmaking of the serotonin myth (see eg. previous post and Jo’s response). 

More generally, depression tends to be seen as a brain disease. Of course people recognise that personal and social factors may also be important, but still the brain causation of depression tends to predominate as an aetiological factor. This is a fundamental misindoctrination of people that their brains determine what they think, feel and  do. Of course the brain is needed for human functioning, as is the whole body, but people are more than their brains. It is a mistake to blame the brain for depression as much as it is for what we think, feel and do in general. We are not teaching our children a proper understanding of themselves (see eg. previous post). No wonder the demand for children’s mental health services, and mental health services in general, is out of control (see eg. another previous post).