Question:

Is the really such thing as a chemical imbalance, why is the proof?

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for mental illness

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  1. you must be an idiot.  


  2. Chemical imbalance is a highly contentious hypothesis which claims that mental illness is caused by an imbalance in the levels of serotonin in the brain. There is a lot of research but not much evidence to support this. Artificially stimulating an individual's serotonin levels has shown some success in some patients, but not enough success to justify the extent to which pharmaceutical companies promote drugs as a cure-all for people with mental health problems.There is no proof of what chemical balance should consist of, therefore how can there be proof of chemical imbalance?


  3. The proof is at my office!  I work in a psych ward and work with these people all of the time.  Some is a natural imbalance-meaning that they are born with it, some of it is induced through drug/alcohol use, but a lot of it is a result of severe abuse as a child.  Some can be fixed with medication and therapy, some requires shock therapy and some cannot be fixed.  You wouldn't believe how much mental health disorders are due to abuse as a child!

  4. nobody knows for sure, but the meds seem to work.

  5. Proof is a difficult thing to establish in the area of human bodies.  It's more like observed success.

    It has been observed that when certain people are given certain drugs that affect the chemistry of the brain that certain desirable results occur.  Maintaining the drugs routine helps to bring about favorable change in the person's life.

    Scientists who study brain activity and function describe these changes chemically.  And therefore when they speak of mental illness they speak of chemical imbalance.

    However, no one claims to know all the answers and certainly there are other causes for mental illness. And certainly some "imbalances" don't want or need to be corrected.  Each person must be viewed as the individual they are. Sometimes general medical knowledge is helpful, sometimes not.

  6. in some instances, yes, as in bipolar

  7. Wow, you're really serious? that's like asking is ther really a such thing as Global Warming.

    Just wit til someone flips out on oyu, that'll be your proof! HA!

    bananas

  8. Chemical imbalance is a term used as a lay explanation of mental illness or mental disorders.

    The basic concept is that chemical imbalance within the brain are the main causes of psychiatric conditions and that these conditions can be improved with medication which corrects these imbalance. The phrase originated from the scientific study of brain chemistry. In the 1950s the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and tricyclic antidepressants were accidentally discovered to be effective in the treatment of depression[1]. These findings and other supporting evidence led Joseph Schildkraut to publish his paper called "The Catecholamine Hypothesis of Affective Disorders" in 1965.[2] Schildkraut associated low levels of neurotransmitters with depression.

    Research into other mental illnesses such as schizophrenia also found that too little activity of certain neurotransmitters was correlated to these disorders. In the scientific community this hypothesis has been referred to as the Monoamine Hypothesis. This hypothesis has been a major focus of research in the fields Pathophysiology and Pharmacotherapy for over 25 years [3] and led to the development of new classes of drugs such as SSRIs (selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitors)[4]. This conceptual framework has been challenged within the scientific community, though no other demonstrably superior hypothesis has emerged. While the hypothesis has been shown to be simplistic and lacking, there is sufficient evidence to consider it as a useful heuristic in the aiding of our understanding of brain chemistry and explaining pharmacotherapy.[5] [6] Wayne Goodman, Chair of the FDA Psychopharmacological Advisory Committee, has described the serotonergic theory of depression as a "useful metaphor" for understanding depression, though not one that he uses with his own psychiatric patients.[7] Recently, psychiatrist Peter Kramer stated that the serotonin theory of depression had been declared dead prematurely.[8] Kramer argues that recent scientific research actually shows a definitive role for serotonin deficiency in depression. An analysis of the studies Kramer cites argues that such statements are premature.[9]

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