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Depression: Biological or Psychological?

Mad in America

J ust about everyone believes that depressionthe #1 psychiatric diagnosisis explained in the same way as physical illnesses; that is, that depression, too, is of genetic/physiological origin. NIMH and psychiatrists have not always explained depression to be genetic (as “running in the family). Their efforts have failed.

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Beyond the Chemical Imbalance: Looking to the Past to Understand the Mental health Crisis

Mad in America

With convenience right at our fingertips, it seems paradoxical that, despite our relative prosperity, we suffer some of the highest rates of mental illness compared to any other part of the world, with more than 1 in 5 US adults living with mental illness.

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The Relationship Between Alcohol and Depression

Clear Behavioral Health

Depression commonly refers to a mental health disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a loss of interest in activities that you once enjoyed. Depression can be caused by acombination of genetic, biological, environmental, and psychological factors. 877.799.1985 What is Depression?

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Why Do Emotions Hijack Our Decisions? The Neuroscience of Impulsivity

Association for Psychological Science (APS)

Fischer Baum and Elliott discuss how a new model of brain function, the GANE model, helps explain why heightened physiological arousal makes it harder for some people to regulate their emotions, what norepinephrine does to hotspot brain regions, and what this means for mental health treatments. That is great news.

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Chemically Imbalanced: Joanna Moncrieff on the Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth

Mad in America

Dr. Moncrieff is a psychiatrist who works in the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. Moncrieff: When I was in medical school we were taught, as we’re still officially taught now, the biopsychosocial model of mental disorders. Whitaker: So now you go out and you’re in the asylum or mental hospital.

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Critical Psychiatry Textbook, Chapter 16: Is There Any Future for Psychiatry? (Part Five)

Mad in America

659 They referred to drug-induced dopamine supersensitivity as a likely reason for this difference in outcomes. 668 A WHO study of 640 depressed patients found that those treated with medication had worse general health and were more likely to still be mentally ill than those who weren’t treated at the end of one year.

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Branding Diseases—How Drug Companies Market Psychiatric Conditions: An Interview with Ray Moynihan

Mad in America

R ay Moynihan is an accomplished health journalist and author who has won several awards for his work. This applies in the mental illness world and everywhere in medicine. It’s about framing human misery as the signs of mental illness, framing aging as a condition of disease. I started writing books.