RIP, psychiatry: the “chemical-imbalance” theory is dead

https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/rip-psychiatry-the-chemical-imbalance-theory-is-dead/

Yes, the chemical imbalance theory is dead. And it nearly took me with it.

 

Thanks for posting this, Qui. 

You bet MS

Great article, Qui! Thank you.

"psychiatric disorders caused by chemical imbalance" is too vague to even be called a theory. It's not even wrong. It's meaningless.

And knowing humanity- will take about 50 years before it's finally dead for good.

From experience, I can say that SSRI withdrawal isn't a pleasant experience for a certain percentage of the population. In fact, there can be many of the same withdrawal symptoms with SSRIs that you get with the benzodiazepines. The SSRIs don't treat a chemical imbalance, but they can certainly create one.

Most of the psychiatric drugs mess with the brains regulation of at least one neurotransmitter. And yet 50 years of research have failed to find any evidence, for any of the psychiatric disorders, that patients had any abnormality in neurotransmitters before taking psychiatric drugs. For example, anti-psychotic drugs reduce dopamine, yet there is no evidence that schizophrenia is caused by too much dopamine. The problem common to all these drugs is the brain quickly adapts to the drug. So the person starts out with no chemical disorder, or at least not one as simplistic as "too much dopamine" or "too little serotonin", but the drugs create one. Read "Anatomy of an Epidemic". What I found startling was the commonality. It's not just benzos. In the book he goes through a bunch of disorders - schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, bipolar, ADHD - and over and over it's the drugs either turning temporary problems into permanent ones, or creating problems where none existed before.

 

And they're still at it. Pop quiz: What's the best-selling drug in the US today? Answer: Abilify. You know, from those TV ads with the cute cartoons showing a cloud of sadness being lifted. The ads make it look like a harmless little pill that everyone should be taking to feel better. OK, pop quiz part 2: What class of drugs is Abilify in? Answer: Anti-psychotics. Yeah, that same class of dopamine-inhibiting drugs that are used to treat schizophrenics. Oh, but don't worry says big pharma, it's a next-generation drug. Better. Safer. Suitable for *everyone*. Yeah, we've heard that before. Like Xanax was supposed to be a safer Valium.

 

OK, I've done my soapbox rant for the day. Sorry...

No apologies required, chessplayer! Well said. I'm well aware of those things, and although I haven't read the book, I've heard the author speak on the radio and watched a number of videos in which he's featured. Scary stuff, indeed.

 

Here in Canada, we don't have drug advertising, so I'm not familiar with the "cloud of sadness being lifted" by Abilify, but I can certainly picture it from your description. That's also scary.

 

It's good that the word is getting out, and the more people who read about and understand the magnitude of the problem, the better.

Sadly it's a freelance reporter blog that's hardly going to gain any traction.  If this were a major news article, that'd be a different story.

 

And there is such a thing as a chemical imbalance.  It happens when you start messing with your brain's processes by feeding it pharmaceuticals..

 

Thanks for the post, when we have a better understanding of biochemistry, people will look back on these times as barbaric. It will be hard for them to believe we took these types of pills and suffered the way we have. I'm sure they will laugh and say, what the hell were they thinking?? They were still in the infancy stages of understanding biochemistry.

Similar to the way we think of cocaine, heroin, and cigarettes being pushed as health promoting substances long ago. Hell, cocaine was in coca cola! wtf

My grandma was told by a doc when she was young to pic up smoking because she was stressed and needed to relax, LMAO. 

Of course, we all know what's usually behind that push, and its money...humans come second to profit in this world.