Depression May Not Be a Chemical Imbalance

“That is all I want in life: for this pain to seem purposeful.” ? Elizabeth Wurtzel

If you’re depressed, do you have a chemical imbalance in your brain?

There is a theory that a chemical imbalance can cause depression, but it’s not a fact.

Before you chase a chemical fix, you might explore other options.

In Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, Dr. David Burns says there’s no proof that chemical imbalance is a cause for depression.

It’s an Unproven Theory, Not a Fact

According to Dr. Burns, it’s only a theory not a fact that a chemical imbalance is a cause for depression.

Via Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy:

“There is an almost superstitious belief in our culture that depression results from a chemical or hormonal imbalance of some type in the brain. But this is an unproven theory and not a fact.

We Still Don’t Know the Cause of Depression

Dr. Burns writes that we still don’t know the cause of depression.

Via Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy:

… we still do not know the cause of depression and we do not know how or why antidepressant drugs work. The theory that depression results from a chemical imbalance has been around for at least 2000 years, but there still is no proof of this, so we really do not know for sure.

There’s No Test That Can Prove It’s a Chemical Imbalance

There is not test that can demonstrate that a chemical imbalance is actually the cause of depression.

Via Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy:

“Furthermore, there is no test or clinical symptom that could demonstrate that a particular patient or group of patients has a ‘chemical imbalance’ that is causing the depression.”

Key Take Aways

Here are my key take aways:

• It’s a theory, not a fact.   It’s a theory that chemical imbalance is a cause for depression, but not a fact.
• We don’t know the cause of depression.  We still don’t know the cause of depression.
• It’s not testable.  There’s no test that can prove that a chemical imbalance is the cause of depression.

I think this raises an interesting issue. When is depression caused by your thought patterns and when are your thoughts “under the influence” of chemicals.

I think the meta-point here is that before resorting to chemical treatment, work through and rule out problems with thought patterns, and that chemical solutions aren’t a silver bullet.