[Dion]

Finally researchers are speaking out about this "lie" that is spun to people in doctors' consulting rooms around the world. Johnathan Leo of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Florida and Jeffrey Lacasse at Florida State University concur that advertising that claims that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance is misleading and should be banned. Such advertisements send out the wrong message to patients, implying that they are passive victims of a brain gone awry, thus potentially leading to further depression. Such advertisements are not only untrue, but profoundly unethical.

The Irish Medicines Board, an equivalent body to the FDA in Ireland, has banned the drug company GlaxoSmithKline from making claims that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. Such information is no longer permitted to be printed in patient information brochures. Leo and Lacasse want the US FDA to follow suit.

While popular antidepressants, such the SSRI family of drugs including Prozac, are believed to block the uptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin, they have been shown in trials to be only marginally better than a placebo in treating depression.

And, as Johnathan Leo argues, "low serotonin levels are no more the cause of depression than low aspirin levels are the cause of headaches." You can read the Leo and Lacasee article in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.002092.

http://mental-health.families.com/bl...ical-imbalance