What Causes Depression? Myths About Chemical Imbalances

Thinking that depression is chemically based increases powerlessness and hopelessness and not likely to lead to getting out of the depths. Helen Fisher, for instance, hypothesizes that the problem with taking seratonin is that it also blocks the dopamine receptors, thus making experiential alleviation impossible,
"common sense" might point to the answer to "Where is Love? Where is Hope? Where is a Reason to Live?" Might be the obvious: "Find work you love, someone to love, be valuable to someone, or any combination of the above." This is, of course, not that easy for someone who is depressed, but maybe there is no other answer.
Is there other research that refutes or supports this?

My nephew is diagnosed with depression and anxiety. He takes medication to help him cope with his unpleasant, and often at times, impractical state. But I have asked this question before.

Is clear that depression can be linked to by a variety of factors. Loneliness, self-disgust, and inattention are some of the common factors in determining a persons state of mind. Everybody endures a point in their life hardship and a lack of energy. Is normal. But what makes it abnormal if these feelings of emptiness affects your personal well-being, health and relationships. That's when it gets bad. And based on my understanding, my nephews lack of energy was contributed to a lack of chemical balance. Is something I buy, and I do believe some people are so depressed that medication is the only way for them to have healthy relationships. However, I believe physical activity is also a clue.

Teens are impressionable, and fitting in is more of a challenge than trying to make them eat their fruits. If teens find a group or social group that they welcome, odds are they will establish societal relationships within their group. If its a sport they participate in, then the transition will work flawlessly. Recreational activities are few in this day and age of social media, but with the right mind and right approach, and a strong belief system, your social relationships will impact you in a positive way. Is proven that exercising decreases depression and it increases your confidence.

But for some people is not as easy. In the case of my nephew, is very severe. As an uncle is disappointing to hear that my nephew needs medication in order for him to be happy. And these drugs are very potent. That's not my concern. To know that my nephew is living a functional life gives me hope that he will realize the benefits of exercising. I believe this is also a memory issue as well. Not only are there health issues in play, but psychologically, I believe there is more to it. And maybe they'll be hope for those who feel alone and depressed.

Excellent article. It's about time the drug companies were taken on by the doctors and psychiatrists who realise that this approach isn't working. Too many keep dishing out the drugs while not believing in them. In fact, a psychiatrist friend told me that he had never cured anyone of anything.

This challenge to the drug sellers is more likely in the UK, where the relationship between medical practitioners and drug companies is not so close as in the US, and there are strict controls on what medications can be advertised to the public. Further, because we have a tax-funded health system, the government is starting to challenge the costs of meds.

Wherever it happens, let's hope it's soon.

Like you I am no fan of pharma. But I don't think your style of writing really helps. For example listing side effects without prevalence rates is somewhat misleading. For example I will take an aspirin despite the tiny possibility of a retinal bleed.

Lets assume that anti depressants are mostly placebo. The same can be said of psychology. The trick then is to come up with the most cost effective anti depressant. And I guess pharma winds hands down here.

Your article also highlights the importance of the nocebo.

Hi there,
I don't think that depression is only or even primarily a chemical "imbalance," and I have suffered from depression throughout my life. Due to side effects (liver-related) I could not take meds when I was younger (back when there were only tricyclics). However, 15 years later I was able to take SSRIs and have been helped significantly by them. And the side effects really aren't that bad. I also see a therapist, and practice martial arts. All of these things are essential. These commercials you mention (we don't have them in Canada) do a great disservice to people's ability to see the full breadth of possibilities for healing and recovery. But your approach, referring only to the negative aspects of medications doesn't really help either.

thanks todd the side effects seem mimimal - given the low incidence the side effects wouldn't dissuade me from taking the drug.

It seems to me thatpsychology needs to be as good as pharma is at utilising the placebo.

Whoever is most cost effective at this has a huge advantage

Hi Todd,

Thanks for writing such a thought provoking article.

I wondered whether there had been any studies done comparing psychological therapies vs psychological therapies combined with pharmacotherapy therapy (the reverse of the above study you mentioned)?

I have a long history of recurrent depression and have been on and off anti-depressants for over a decade. I engage in regular therapy (based on ACT), exercise regularly and have created strong social supports/relationships to increase my wellbeing. I would prefer not to take anti-depressants (specifically for the sexual dysfunction side effects they cause) and had been off them for 2 years and I genuinely thought I had "beaten" depression.

However, I found myself spiralling into depression again last year when I unexpectedly fell pregnant with my third child. I avoided taking anti-depressants for 6 months and really amped up my therapy, plus attending positive psychology and mindfulness based courses, however I still found myself languishing. It wasn't until I reluctantly went on anti-depressants that I started to feel better and gain perspective. I decided I couldn't afford to be struggling so much with 3 children under 4 and wanted to be in the best frame of mind I could be!

I'd like to believe that the drugs effect is placebo as I'd rather not be on them. However, I really believed I could "beat" my depression with natural therapies, and gave it a good crack, but uItimately I couldn't.

When do you advocate the use of drugs? Once people reach a certain severity of depression is there evidence to say that chemical imbalance occurs?

Thanks again for your insight and the awesome work you do :)

I could only read the first few paragraphs and the list of side effects before I started laughing. SO, are we to assume the our clinical depression and chemical imbalances are all in our imaginations and that these drugs do not have any positive effects? I just love doctors and their opinions and their love of chemical cocktails. As a bipolar suffer, I find some of these discussions hilarious if you haven't been looking out through my eyes. Excuse me, I have to go take my placebos now before this spins me out of control!

I believe that the chemical company are the cause of all this suffering and are able to sale more chemical to try to fixe what they themself cause to begin with, going 100% organic remove all toxin from your body and brain. Life can then flourish inside of you and your brain is then able to focus, many children with HADD when put on an organic diet return to being normal kids. The same for all of us. Chemicals are use every where, to grow our food to preserve our food in the process of our food, in the water we drink in the air we breath. Take all these chemical shake well and watch people explode. More chemical is not the answer.

Todd - from the discussion it seems that anti depressanst do have a place. Until appropriate algorithms are developed (as you suggest) and given that our knowledge of when to use psychotherapy is just as vague, and given healthcare costs are balooning, it would seem reasonable that given the cost effectivness of meds, that they are probably the best first line of treatment.

Re the study you quote in the article I assume it hasn't been replcated. We all should aboid the urge to jump on the band wagon unitil science has run its course.

Its also probably useful to rememember the issue of branding as it applies to psychology. Psychologists push meaning knowing that there are no proven interventions and that people who search for meaning experience substantially less life satisfaction. Perhaps psychology parallels anti depressants in this regard?

Just some thoughts before you delete the comment.

Todd - i'm not sure why you are referencing benzo's when SSRI's are the preferred treatment protocol for most forms of depression. The comparison is really chalk and cheese given the addictive nature of benzo's and the associated withdrawal symptoms.

Do you have any research supporting that psychotherapy has a benefit over meds on the treatment of depression. Perhaps lower relapse rates??

Thank todd - i did go back and read the comment.

I have recently has a mild shoulder injury - I resisted getting a cortisone shot mainly due to concerns about side effects. Eventually I had the needle and it worked wonderfully. The doctor who performed the procedure explained that the cortisone will stop the inflammatory response and allow the body to heal - it doesn't do the healing (exactly what you suggested)

So perhaps that is what anti depressants do particularly for mild to moderate depression. They allow you to get on with things and heal yourself - and you probably don't even need a psychologist.

The story might be different for severe depression or comorbity where combined therapy might be best.

But either way drugs are probabl the appropriate starting point given their cost effectivness. If they don't work then bringing other treatments in wold seem appropriate.

Thoughts????

Perhaps medication allows some people to heal without a psychologist. For example they might be more motivated to exercise or catch up with people.

Your fear provoking article just reinforces my reservations about psychology research

A new study reinforces the point about knowing when to use meds, drugs and other potentially more effective interventions. Psychology has to be really cautious about throwing stones when its own backyard isn't exactly squeaky clean.

Discussions with a dietary coach to learn about healthy eating were as effective as meeting with a counselor for problem-solving or "talk" therapy in preventing major depression among older black and white adults with mild symptoms of the mood disorder, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Maryland.

See http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-03/uops-lic032014.php

Mr Kashdan is probably wealthy enough to afford psychotherapy. Unfortunately I am not in that position. Meds worked quickly for me and the only side effect I had was a little nausea which I quickly got over. I only took the for a short period of time while I got through a difficult time in my life.

My sister was reluctant to use meds and tried various alternatives including different types of psychology. None of this worked and reluctantly she tried SSRI's. She is a new woman.

So like many people above meds did work.

If psychology did work and was as cheap as pharmaceuticals then perhaps I would consider it. But there are those of us in the real world who don't have alot of money and need to get on with our lives.

Most of the discussion diverges from the point you make.

Personally I am curious about the study you reference. Can you post a link?

Did those who tested positive to the sham biomedical test have a heightened expectation of the effectiveness of meds?

How much worse were the measures for those who tested negatively? And what was the reference point?

I also can't help but think that it would be interesting to run a similar test after people read your article? Perhaps your message might also adversely might treatment beliefs.

Several comments did point out the bias in your article. Personally I would suggest curiosity is based on being open to all perspectives despite personal biases.

Does Lasik cure myopia?

I wish I was a well paid university lecturer. Then I would have the income to afford psychotherapy. Unfortunately its a choice between feeding my kids and seeing a psychologist. Thank god meds work for me.

Your post has revealed all the parts of the depression. Thankyou for sharing and posting.
opthalmic instrumets

It is still doubted that chemical imbalance may cause the depression. Peoples may recover from the depression but need to consult with a professional psychologist. http://www.buysafegenerics.com/

I have been a life-long sufferer of severe depression and anxiety myself. Has anyone thought that perhaps the medication that they feel is finally helping them after trying so many that didn't seem to work may be due to the possibility that the medication is really working like a placebo and the one that finally seems to be helping just happens to be the one that presents the least amount of side effects combined with that particular persons body chemistry? Also, keep in mind that once on these drugs for a while, the brains chemistry is tampered with and sometimes irreparably, depending on the amount of time the person has taken the medication. Of course the person thinks medication is helping them after the medication they were on before had such undesirable effects. So many people swear by their medications effectiveness so this would explain why some medications didn't help while one in particular seems to. I have learned to live a fulfilling an happy life without medication, after trying SO many. The way I've done this has been by sustaining myself on a healthy diet (with little to no meat), being physically active, often while getting a good amount of sunlight and by surrounding myself with a supportive and loving group of people. I have my moments, but don't we all? Yes, Mine may be worse than those of a "normal" persons but I do not buy into the money-making scheme of the pharmaceutical companies and so-called doctors. They have done nothing but try to convince me that I can do nothing without them. Well, I have definitely proven them wrong.

Yes! I am saying I can create depression with a simple experiment for anyone who can perform my demonstration of subliminal sight and habituation in peripheral vision. It is linked at the top of my home page, and shows the ability to ignore movement in peripheral vision, suppress the vision startle reflex. (Those who cannot do that cannot have Subliminal Distraction exposure and are immune from it. This explains why mental illness seems to run in families. That ability is inherited.)

Fifty years ago engineers discovered a previously unknown problem with human physiology when it caused mental breaks for office workers,1964. The office cubicle was designed to block peripheral vision to stop believe-harmless episodes of psychotic-like confusion by 1968.

When it happened to my wife after her office was changed eliminating Cubicle Level Protection, she heard voices and had depressive crying episodes concerning guilt for impossible criminal situations she hallucinated. Her Subliminal Distraction episode was mistaken for schizophrenia. I had known of the problem since I was a 22 year old engineering student in 1966 but had never seen it happen before. (See her hospital records on site.)

I eventually learned that psychiatrists are unaware engineers ever found or solved the problem. I began a project to find out why the simple problem is unknown in mental health services, VisionAndPsychosis.Net.

The subliminal appreciation of threat from subliminal failed attempts to startle is defined in first semester psychology as a visual subliminal distraction. The engineering design problem take the same name, Subliminal Distraction.

But if the mental break it is known to cause is mentioned in lectures on peripheral vision reflexes, it is treated as something that happened once, long ago, not a normal feature of everyone's physiology of sight. My instructor said, "Subliminal sight caused a problem in the early days of modern office design." The quality of psychology courses is so poor across the country that you may have to find someone to dig the information out of lecture material on peripheral vision reflexes.

You can use the Wayback Machine to show my project began in the fall of 2002. There is a link at the bottom of my Home page to a forum post where I was accused of being an attorney trying to get information for a lawsuit. That post shows that designers and engineers eschew discussing Subliminal Distraction. No one wants to make the career ending mistake of revealing information that would start a flood of lawsuits against an employer or customer.

Herman Miller, Steelcase, Knoll, and Haworth have sold cubicles and designed open plan offices using "Systems Furniture" for almost fifty years to prevent a problem they believe is harmless and only happens in incorrectly designed, large, crowded business offices. It's a problem of everyone's physiology of sight not offices. Modern close-spaced offices were the first place all the "special circumstances" were created and observed to discover it. It has always existed to cause psychiatric symptoms through history. (See my Culture Bound Syndromes page.)

Understand, engineers did not caused the problem, they created the situation that revealed it exists. Reports of spontaneous remissions in scholarly books on the history of mental illness show, unrealized by the authors, that Subliminal Distraction filled mad houses in London 400 years ago. There were no drugs then so all recoveries were spontaneous remissions. Where are those remissions today? Mental illness has not changed. Spontaneous remissions are being covered up by immediate treatment and claimed as outcomes for failed drugs and nonsense talk therapy solutions. When exposure stops and symptoms remit doctors and patients believe the last drug or treatment modality caused the recovery.

By replicating the situation engineers discovered I can cause depression, the first outcome of Subliminal Distraction exposure. Panic attacks are another common outcome. The experiment is safe if all the precautions are taken to stop the experiment when the first subtle thought changes are recognized.

Today computers require the same level of mental investment as office work. That allows the mental break causing design mistake to be made almost anywhere. I believe this is the long sought cause of college suicides when students make the design mistake where they study or use a computer. Exposure would peak at times of intense study such as midterms and finals. That's when college students begin to vanish and commit suicide. (See my College Suicides page.)

There is no treatment for Subliminal Distraction episodes. They must spontaneously remit when exposure stops. My guess as to why the mental break happens is on the "Background" section of my "Site Outline" page. I have been unable to find anyone in neurology or psychiatry to explain what happens in the brain from a massive number of subliminal failed attempts to startle to cause a psychotic-like episode.

Everyone with a computer at home or a child in school should be aware of the problem to take simple free precautions to avoid exposure.

You are either smart enough to take free advice and provable information or you are not. VisionAndPsychosis.Net

This is a very important article and should stimulate a lot of discussion in many places. Unfortunately, it is way too brief. Two things I wish it included are the term "nocebo effect" (which it otherwise references by example) and the idea that our brain chemical levels can be influenced by a variety of things we choose to do or not do. We are not helpless victims of brain chemistry but rather artistic mad scientists living 24/7 in a Universal laboratory. If you doubt that, have your doctor or therapist write a referral for hypnotherapy and I'll help you discover this through your own experience.

Thanks a lot quite a lot with regard to revealing this kind of with the individuals you really realize what most likely discussing roughly! Book-marked. Please in addition review together with my site =). We were able to possess a web page alternate written agreement in between people hi there!, I love your own personal publishing very much! ratio we all connect more about your personal post on AMERICA ONLINE? We would like an expert within this living space to resolve my very own trouble. Perhaps that may be an individual! Having a look forward to peer a person.

Nothing at all compares to the background music Guide. Absolutely no, you won't hear the background music, you could quickly locate some thing you might love based upon that which you such as.

Dear Sir, I fail to see any sign that you have any first hand experience with what I'll call internal depression, a situation where there are no external forces that might make one feel depressed. As one who had suffered from depression starting at the age of 10, and after 20 years managed to design a life nearly symptom free I am trying not to feel anger toward this article. Sure, the pharmaceutical companies love the art of misdiagnosing and their drugs may even do more harm than good but to put "chemical imbalances and myth" in the same sentence is unprofessional and a little ignorant. It does make a good headline I guess considering you are into the self help/positive thinking industry. Yet god forbid some poor kid get a reads it and can put further blame on himself, pushing him further down that downward spiral. But from what I see, you wouldn't know anything about that. you'd know that it just isn't there. You can't say "oh, yeah everythings great" when they don't even know why they are feeling bad. Yes, exercise, diet, atmosphere are very important, as well are a supportive environment. BUT, the chemical imbalances are fact. How can I prove it. Season Affective Disorder, where external conditions effect brain chemistry and in turn mood. Science that I think stands on firmer grounding than the art of thinking positive. Hell, I moved to Florida specifically to get more sunlight so I could get off medications and it worked like a charm in improving the condition and allowing me to get off the drug. There are also theories where as one grows older the brain produces less melatonin...basically, the science is there and if find such articles as this are just as harmful as the pharmaceutical companies behavior. To say it's a myth and everyone who has benefited from the medications is due to a placebo effect comes off as a statement from someone who thinks they are superior being smug. All depressed people do is examine themselves. They don't know what is wrong and they constantly blame themselves and try different things to get out of the funk. You act as if they don't, that you have the ability to see into other minds and judge. I'd keep to your self improvement crowd and stay away from those with depression issues, in fact stay away from the subject, all you will do is cause harm. I am trying to respect you article, and be polite, but to make across the board declarations on depression. I think you have to do more research and reconsider your position. But from coming from someone who got out of it mostly due to the same ways you would promote, I would never assume how another persons mind works or damn any method that has helped people. Not one of the worse things, but maybe most irritating things about depression are those on the outside making comments on the subject they know nothing about.