Is “Chemical Imbalance” a Theory or a Fact?

In the book, “Psychotherapist’s Guide to Psychopharmacology,” written by UCLA psychiatry professor Dr. Michael Gitlin, the author stated:

“Despite a remarkable amount of research over the last 25 years, however, there is still no definitive biological explanation for any psychiatric disorder” (p.8).

In another book, “The Medical Basis of Psychiatry,” no reference can be found in it on “chemical imbalance.” In discussing the dopamine/serotonin hypothesis, it stated that the “data are ambiguous.”

To put it bluntly, we can so realize that a chemical imbalance is a theory, not a fact. It’s well evidenced from too many studies and sources with “inconclusive research.”


Yet many doctors and patients with psychological issues accept the chemical imbalance theory as a fact.

Cultural pressure or drug marketing is part of the picture leaving counselees believing that drugs are necessary to treat their depression or some other psychiatric condition.

Here are questions we may ask those who claim that a chemical imbalance produces depression or emotional/behavioral problems:

•  What laboratory tests are run to prove that a chemical imbalance is present in the brain?

•  How do you know that chemical imbalance is the cause of the emotional or behavioral actions?

•  Is the connection a proven demonstrable fact?

•  What evidences you have that the medicine or pills you’re prescribing are able to correct the alleged chemical imbalance?

Be informed. “Treatment failure” is avoidable. Know how to really deal with and handle the problems of life.

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