Synapses, Drugs, and Addiction

Neurotransmitters and “Mental Disorders”

Mental disorders are typically seen as caused by an excess or deficit of certain neurotransmitters.

However, is this ever so popular 'chemical imbalance' theory thoroughly backed up by good science?

The DSM-III established psychiatry as a medical specialty, allowing psychiatrists to don the white coat and expand their prescribing powers. The introduction of Thorazine (chlorpromazine) in 1954 sparked up the psychopharmacological “revolution.” However, this drug was first introduced as a major tranquilizer (because it was used as an anesthetic for surgery – psychiatrists used the drug’s “side effects” to help sedate troublesome schizophrenic patients; they believed it produced a chemical lobotomy.) The term that we’re more familiar with – antipsychotic – was developed later as a marketing scheme to emphasize that it treats an underlying disease. Antipsychotics, antidepressants, anti-anxiety agents, are not scientific terms but marketing terms in order to describe what they are supposed to treat as what they’re supposed to do. Antidepressants were first called psychic energizers. Anti-anxiety agents were first called minor tranquilizers.

 

In the midst of discovering magic bullets for infectious diseases, like antibiotics to combat bacteria, psychiatry sought to catch up with medical profession to find their own “magic bullet”/miracle cure for mental illness. These miracle drugs only treat the patient for the short-term. Good long-term outcomes are rare – in fact, most medications actually worsen long-term outcomes. Now, I’m not saying these psychiatric medications should be abolished from society. They certainly have their place, but I believe they should be used in a more limited manner (for short-term outcomes) and psychosocial, alternative non-drug therapy, good diet, and exercise should be considered for the long-term. However, the most profitable treatment is one that you have to take every day for the rest your life. Pharmaceutical companies and psychiatry work together in such a way that the mentally ill essentially become a consumer 1^st and a patient 2^nd. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t care about money – but shouldn’t a helping profession (like medical doctors) be more concerned with helping people for the long-term? 

 

The most popular theory for the cause of depression is insufficient monoamines (serotonin and norepinephrine) in the brain. Similarly, schizophrenia is thought to be caused by an overabundance of dopamine. This biochemical imbalance as a cause for mental illness is usually described as being exactly like how people with diabetes need insulin treatment for life – people with mental disorders need medications for life. With the chemical imbalance theory, psychiatry has a biological disease of the brain in which they can treat with chronic medications to “correct” this imbalance. However, these “illnesses” aren’t caused by a chemical imbalance – they’re iatrogenic. The treatment for the disease creates the chemical imbalance, fueling dependence of the medication. When you take a mental patient off his daily dose of whatever the case – whether that’s an antipsychotic, antidepressant, benzodiazepine, stimulant, or a combination, etc. – that mental patient will experience withdrawal (to say the least), and these severe symptoms are claimed to be symptoms of the illness. Therefore, in psychiatry’s logic, you cannot take a mental patient off his medication because he will become ill (even if his illness clearly became worse after use of medication.) 850 adults and 250 children are becoming disabled by mental illness daily (Whitaker, 2010). Children as young as two-years of age are becoming diagnosed as “bipolar.” The number of disabled children by mental illness has rose thirty-five fold within the past twenty years, despite these “advances” in mental health.

 

If any of the following information stirs any interest for you, please check out Robert Whitaker’s book Anatomy of an Epidemic.

 

Whitaker, R. (2010). Anatomy of an epidemic: Magic bullets, psychiatric drugs, and the astonishing rise of mental illness in America. NY: Crown Publishers.

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: If you or anyone you know is taking a prescriptive psychiatric medication for stress, anxiety, depression, or any other reason deemed appropriate by the prescribing physician, alteration or discontinuation of the drug(s) is NOT recommended. Discontinuation or alteration of prescriptive medications can be life-threatening and can only be done under the authority and supervision of a licensed medical doctor!