In any other field of research this type of claim (the chemical imbalance hypothesis) would be dismissed as a spurious, unproven, statistically insignificant hypothesis. But in psychology and psychiatry it is treated as fact.

Much the same is the case with genetic arguments.

The first thing I learned in sociology 100 a couple decades ago was the fallacy of reductionism: reducing highly complex problems to a simple explanation. Humans are not mere biological things. They are complex social creatures, subject to cultural, family, environmental, gender and ethinic influences, as well as biological influences.

I think psychiatry has long suffered from an inferiority complex as it has tried to earn credibility alongside their hard science and medical science cohorts. These eroneous claims of chemical imbalance are part of that striving for credibility; but the claims have no basis in research. The witch doctors who spit out these unproven theories as research or truth are nothing more than shills for the pharmaceutical industrial complex. It's very hard to sell drugs on a mass scale if you can't prove that what you are treating is a 'disease' that exists in the biology (or brain chemistry) of the patient. There are no pills tha can address bad socilization. This is pure political and commercial expediency on the part of big pharma and its well funded band of shills that pose as scientists and researchers.

It is just bizarre how the general public thinks the biochemical disease theory is an established fact.

Do not food, excercise, sleep, natural and homeopathic remedies affect mood problems and mental health? These are all bio-chemical processes. I do not deny the absurdity of allowing transnational pharmaceutical producers to direct and control the research and access...but when we demonize manufactured chemicals, we are denying the reality of our own life processes. I think the problem is capitalist ownership of a human rights issue - knowledge and access to health.

Karla,
I agree with a lot of what you say, particularly about capitalism. We have all become prey animals in the US, nothing but fodder for corporations who lie endlessly in their desire for our money.

Having said that, I must say that the term "biochemical imbalance" has become nothing but a code phrase for "needs medication". That's a serious problem. Food, exercise, sleep, etc. do influence our biochemistry. Medications, on the other hand, well even the package insert usually says the action "is not known" or it's describe in exceedingly vague terms that are pretty much interchangeable from one insert to another.

Good, nourishing food; the proper amount of exercise and sleep also do not carry negative side effects. Of course, thanks to capitalistic greed, we hear as little about the negative effects of processed food, sedentary television/computer use and lack of sleep from overwork as we do about the side effects of medications.

Lack of honesty seems to be a serious problem here. And it's rampant when it comes to medications, to the point where you simply cannot trust what comes out of your doctor's lips any more, because no matter how well meaning s/he may be, most of the education your doc's had has been paid for by drug companies. That's sad, really sad.

Um, I need to stop being sedentary and go for a nice, long walk.