Posted by SLS on March 14, 2012, at 1:10:24
In reply to Treating Depression: Is there a placebo effect?, posted by Netch on March 12, 2012, at 11:53:16
> Does a chemical imbalance cause depression?
> For decades, doctors have linked depression to a chemical imbalance in the brain, but psychiatrist Dr. Walter Brown says this theory needs to be reexamined.
Depression might involve more than a simple and singular chemical imbalance, so this theory is no longer universally accepted as being accurate. That's all that is being said here. MDD is no less biological. However, it is just more complex than originally thought.
"Dr. Walter Brown of Brown Medical School also appeared on the 60 Minutes segment. He said that he and many of his colleagues in the field of psychiatry are challenging the theory that depression is caused by low levels of the chemical seratonin in the brain. 'Experts in the field believe that theory is a gross oversimplification and probably is not correct.'"
- Psychology Today: February 21, 2012, Marilyn Wedge, Ph.D.
The whole placebo response thing is also somewhat complex, and deserves more careful consideration than just saying that it exists.
- ScottSome see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1012889
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120302/msgs/1013017.html