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Protesters at the site of the recent annual conference of Mental Health America (MHA) drew attention to outdated and misleading information on MHA’s website that may cause the website’s users to wrongly believe they have a psychiatric disorder and end up receiving unnecessary mental health treatment. The protest was organized by the DC chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), an international mental health industry watchdog.
On its webpage on facts about depression, MHA states that “people with depression may have too little or too much of certain brain chemicals,” with a link taking readers to a reference from 2007 that discusses brain chemicals. However, not only was there no scientific proof back then of the theory of a brain chemical imbalance causing depression, but in the nearly two decades of intensive research since then, there still is no proof.
That lack of proof was confirmed by a 2021 comprehensive review of all prior research into the theory of an imbalance of the brain chemical serotonin causing depression, which found that there was not scientific evidence to support the theory. The study’s researchers expressed concern that the general public’s acceptance of the chemical imbalance theory of depression has had the negative effect of causing depressed individuals to believe they have less control over their moods.
Because of widespread promotion of the theory, including in psychiatric journals and pharmaceutical company literature, surveys have found that 85% to 90% of the public believe that a chemical imbalance in the brain causes depression and that taking antidepressants fixes it. Currently, some 45 million Americans are taking antidepressants, including nearly 6 million children and young adults under the age of 25, for whom antidepressants carry a warning about an increased risk of suicide from taking the drugs.
“Websites and other consumer information suggesting that an imbalance of brain chemicals causes mental health issues is misinformation, which has already misled an untold number of Americans into wrongly believing they need to take psychiatric drugs to fix their brains, and that in turn has exposed them to the risks of serious side effects from those powerful, mind-altering drugs,” said Anne Goedeke, president of the CCHR National Affairs Office. “Wording suggesting that a chemical imbalance in the brain may cause mental health issues should be removed from all consumer information because there is no scientific basis for it.”
About Us: The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was co-founded in 1969 by members of the Church of Scientology and the late psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry Thomas Szasz, M.D., recognized by many academics as modern psychiatry’s most authoritative critic, to eradicate abuse and restore human rights and dignity to the field of mental health.
Contact Info:
Name: Anne Goedeke
Email: Send Email
Organization: Citizens Commission on Human Rights, National Affairs Office
Address: Washington, DC
Website: https://www.CCHRNational.org
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ufOUHeS-ZY
Release ID: 89142058
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