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DEPRESSION STUDY: Reports On Chemical Imbalance Theory Throws HUGE Curveball To Standard Practice

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Stories like this one undermine the entire ‘settled science’ narrative. Science, by definition, is a *process* not a final ruling. Just ask the scientists who conducted this paradigm-bursting study.

What they discovered about the roots of depression left someone who helped conduct the study saying ‘everything I thought I knew has been flipped upside down’. Some research falls into the ‘this changes everything we thought we knew’ about a familiar subject category. This falls into that category. You can find the newly-released study published in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry, here.

As much as calling science ‘settled’ might make us feel safe and assured, it is precisely the studies that challenge and overthrow our assumptions about how the world really works that open up new areas of learning and discovery.

Newtonian physics were ‘settled’ until Einstein came along with relativity. Louis Pasteur’s experiments disproved spontaneous generation. The Steady State theory of the universe preferred by anti-theists came to be replaced by the Big Bang Theory.

The history of science is nothing less than a parade of conventional wisdom being superceded by new discoveries.

That doesn’t mean new discoveries are always welcomed with open arms. Ignaz Semmelweis, the doctor who first proved that handwashing can save lives and prevent disease transmission, lost his job and died in a mental asylum at the age of 47.

We might expect this new peer-reviewed discovery about the role of seratonin in depression to face similiar opposition. After all, some BIG money is on the line here if their findings are right.

University College London researchers argue, however, that there’s ‘no convincing evidence’ that depression is caused by an imbalance of the chemical.
One academic involved in the study described the findings as ‘eye-opening’, and that ‘everything I thought I knew has been flipped upside down’.
Lead author Professor Joanna Moncrieff, a psychiatrist, said: ‘The popularity of the “chemical imbalance” theory has coincided with a huge increase in the use of antidepressants.
‘Thousands suffer from side effects of antidepressants, including severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise.
We believe this situation has been driven partly by the false belief that depression is due to a chemical imbalance.
‘It is high time to inform the public that this belief is not grounded in science.’
One in six British adults and roughly 13 per cent of Americans take antidepressants, figures suggest.
DailyMail

In a piece written in response to this study, Peter Hitchens pulls no punches while going after conventional wisdom and SSRI perscriptions. Here’s a sample of what he was saying:

Modern ‘antidepressant’ pills, of a type known as SSRIs, were said to raise serotonin levels, and so tackle depression. I will let you into a secret. Distinguished doctors have argued for years that the evidence for this claim is very weak indeed. Other experts have said that the unpleasant side-effects of SSRI ‘antidepressants’ can be severe, and that many who take them undergo pain and misery if they decide to stop doing so.
Now the doubts have grown far stronger. Yesterday, the distinguished researchers of that great institution, University College London, declared the prescribing of these brightly coloured capsules is ‘not grounded in science’. They said that the serotonin theory is a ‘false belief’ and that there is ‘no convincing evidence’ of a link between serotonin levels and depression.
Professor Joanna Moncrieff, the consultant psychiatrist who led the study, put it bluntly: ‘After a vast amount of research over decades, there is no convincing evidence depression is caused by serotonin abnormalities, particularly by lower levels or reduced activity of serotonin.’ Using language of quite devastating force, this distinguished doctor drove home her message, which was published in the learned journal Molecular Psychiatry and based on the analysis of studies involving tens of thousands of patients. — DailyMail

His frustration with lockstep allegiance to past practices was plainly evident in his ascerbic list of medical practices from recent history that had been the norm but have since been disproven — and worse! — shown to have done more harm than good.

We’re now standing at a crossroads where we will need to have the same sort of converastion about the wisdom of prescribing SSRIs that we had about whether doctors prescribing the supposed wonderdrug Oxycontin were hurting the patient more than helping them.

Obviously, SSRIs are a different class of drugs than opioids, and the risk profiles are not the same. But the risk profile is still real enough.

Of course, this threatens a really big cash cow, and a lot of people downstream from the spout where that money comes out, not the least of which are politicians.

Watching, from here in the cheap seats, it will be really interesting to see how this drama plays out.

Dear Christian: Your Fear Is Full of Crap

by Doug Giles

Beginning in March 2020, many Christians went into lockdown-freak-out mode. Uncut, irrational, unbiblical, and not to mention, unconstitutional, fear gripped many churches and church leaders. Forced to choose between obeying the Word of God or the edict of man, most Western Churches buckled. We even saw it here in First Amendment-protected America.

The Apostle Peter buckled to fear on the night of Christ’s crucifixion. But he learned his lesson and lived the rest of his life bold as a lion. How can the church ‘go and do likewise’?

Read the book and find out!

Get your copy of Dear Christian: Your Fear Is Full of Crap now. Better yet, grab an extra copy for any petrified pastor who dutifully put obedience to the unconstitutional edicts of Mayor McCheese ahead of obedience to the explicit commandments of the LORD God Almighty.

Wes Walker

Wes Walker is the author of "Blueprint For a Government that Doesn't Suck". He has been lighting up Clashdaily.com since its inception in July of 2012. Follow on twitter: @Republicanuck