The Myth of Biological Depression

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The Myth of Biological Depression

 

by Lawrence Stevens, J.D.

 

Unhappiness or " depression " alleged to be the result of biological abnormality

is called " biological " or " endogenous " or " clinical " depression. In her book

The Broken Brain: The Biological Revolution in Psychiatry, University of Iowa

psychiatry professor Nancy Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D., says " The older term

endogenous implies that the depression `grows from within' or is biologically

caused, with the implication that unfortunate and painful events such as losing

a job or lover cannot be considered contributing causes " (Harper & Row, 1984, p.

203). Similarly, in 1984 in the Chicago Tribune newspaper columnist Joan Beck

alleged: " depressive disorders are basically biochemical - and not caused by

events or environmental circumstances or personal relationships " (July 30, 1984,

Sec. 1, p. 16).

 

 

The concept of biological or endogenous depression is important to psychiatry

for two reasons. First, it is the most common supposed mental illness. As

Victor I. Reus, M.D., wrote in 1988: " The history of the diagnosis and treatment

of melancholia could serve as a history of psychiatry itself " (appearing in: H.

H. Goldman, editor, Review of General Psychiatry, 2nd Edition, Appleton & Lange,

1988, p. 332). Second, all of psychiatry's biological " treatments " for

depression - whether it is drugs, electroshock, or psychosurgery - are based on

the idea that the unhappiness we call depression can be caused by a biological

malfunction rather than life experience. The erroneous belief in biological

causation justifies the otherwise unjustifiable use of biological therapies.

And the biological therapies justify the existence of psychiatry as a medical

specialty distinguishable from psychology or counselling.

 

 

Many professional and lay people today think depression can be caused by

" chemical imbalance " in the brain even though none of the " chemical imbalance "

theories of depression have been verified. Some of them are discussed by Dr.

Andreasen in her book The Broken Brain.

 

 

One of the theories she describes is the belief that " depression " (what I think

should be called simply unhappiness or severe unhappiness) is the result of

neuroendocrine abnormalities indicated by excessive cortisol in the blood. The

test for this is called the dexamethasone-suppression test or DST. The theory

behind this test and the claims of its usefulness were found to be mistaken,

however, because, in Dr. Andreasen's words, " so many patients with well-defined

depressive illness have normal DSTs " (pp. 180-182). An article in the July 1984

Harvard Medical School Health Letter reached a similar conclusion. The article,

titled " Diagnosing Depression: How Good is the `DST'? " , reported that " For every

three office patients with an abnormal DST, only one is likely to have true

depression. ... [And] a large fraction of people who are depressed by other

criteria will still have normal results on the DST " (p. 5). Similarly, in an

article in the November 1983 Archives of Internal Medicine three physicians

concluded that " Data from studies currently available do not support the use of

the dexamethasone ST [suppression Test] " (Martin F. Shapiro, M.D., et al.,

" Biases in the Laboratory Diagnosis of Depression in Medical Practice " , Vol.

143, p. 2085). In 1993 in her book If It Runs In Your Family: Depression,

Connie S. Chan, Ph.D., acknowledges that " There is still no valid biological

test for depression " (Bantam Books, p. 106). But despite its having been

discredited, some biologically oriented psychiatrists are (apparently) so eager

for biological explanations for people's unhappiness or " depression " that they

continue to use the DST anyway. For example, in his book The Good News About

Depression, published in 1986, psychiatrist Mark S. Gold, M.D., says he

continues to use the DST. In that book Dr. Gold claims the DST is " highly

touted as the diagnostic test for biologic depression " (Bantam, p. 155, emphasis

in original).

 

 

In The Broken Brain, Dr. Andreasen also describes what she calls " the most

widely accepted theory about the cause of depression...the `catecholamine

hypothesis.' " She emphasizes that " the catecholamine hypothesis is theory

rather than fact " (p. 231). She says " This hypothesis suggests that patients

suffering from depression have a deficit of norepinephrine in the brain " (p.

183), norepinephrine being one of the " major catecholamine systems " in the brain

(pp. 231-232). One way the catecholamine hypothesis is evaluated is by studying

one of the breakdown products of norepinephrine, called MHPG, in urine. People

with so-called depressive illness " tended to have lower MHPG " (p. 234). The

problem with this theory, according to Dr. Andreasen, is that " not all patients

with depression have low MHPG " (ibid). She accordingly concludes that this

catecholamine hypothesis " has not yet explained the mechanism causing

depression " (p. 184).

 

 

Another theory is that severe unhappiness ( " depression " ) is caused by lowered

levels or abnormal use of another brain chemical, serotonin. A panel of experts

assembled by the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment reported in 1992

that " Prominent hypotheses concerning depression have focused on altered

function of the group of neurotransmitters called monoamines (i.e.,

norepinephrine, epinephrine, serotonin, dopamine), particularly norepinephrine

(NE) and serotonin. ... studies of the NE [norepinephrine] autoreceptor in

depression have found no specific evidence of an abnormality to date.

Currently, no clear evidence links abnormal serotonin receptor activity in the

brain to depression. ... the data currently available do not provide consistent

evidence either for altered neurotransmitter levels or for disruption of normal

receptor activity " (The Biology of Mental Disorders, U.S. Gov't Printing Office,

1992, pp. 82 & 84).

 

 

Even if it was shown there is some biological change or abnormality

" associated " with depression, the question would remain whether this is a cause

or an effect of the " depression " . At least one brain-scan study (using positron

emission tomography or PET scans) found that simply asking normal people to

imagine or recall a situation that would make them feel very sad resulted in

significant changes in blood flow in the brain (Jose V. Pardo, M.D., Ph.D., et

al., " Neural Correlates of Self-Induced Dysphoria " , American Journal of

Psychiatry, May 1993, p. 713). Other research will probably confirm it is

emotions that cause biological changes in the brain rather than biological

changes in the brain causing emotions.

 

 

One of the more popular theories of biologically caused depression has been

hypoglycemia, which is low blood sugar. In his book Fighting Depression,

published in 1976, Harvey M. Ross, M.D., said " In my experience as an

orthomolecular psychiatrist, I find that many patients who complain of

depression have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). ... Because depression is so

common in those with hypoglycemia, any person who is depressed without a clear

cut obvious cause for that depression should be suspected of having low blood

sugar " (Larchmont Books, p. 76 & 93). But in their book Do You Have A

Depressive Illness?, published in 1988, psychiatrists Donald Klein, M.D., and

Paul Wender, M.D., list hypoglycemia in a section titled " Illnesses That Don't

Cause Depression " (Plume, p. 61). The idea of hypoglycemia as a cause of

depression was also rejected in the front page article of the November 1979

Harvard Medical School Health Letter, titled " Hypoglycemia - Fact or Fiction? "

 

 

Another theory of a physical disease causing psychological unhappiness or

" depression " is hypothyroidism. In her book Can Psychotherapists Hurt You?

psychologist Judi Striano, Ph.D., includes a chapter titled " Is It Depression -

Or An Underactive Thyroid? " (Professional Press, 1988). Similarly, three

psychiatry professors in 1988 asserted " Frank hypothyroidism has long been known

to cause depression " (Alan I. Green, M.D., et al., The New Harvard Guide to

Psychiatry, Harvard Univ. Press, 1988, p. 135). The theory here is that the

thyroid gland, which is located in the neck, normally secretes hormones which

reach the brain through the bloodstream necessary for a feeling of psychological

well being and that if the thyroid produces too little of these hormones, the

affected person can start feeling unhappy even if no problems result from the

endocrine (gland) problem other than the unhappiness. The American Medical

Association Encyclopedia of Medicine lists many symptoms of hypothyroidism:

" muscle weakness, cramps, a slow heart rate, dry and flaky skin, hair loss ...

there may be weight gain " (Random House, 1989, p. 563). The Encyclopedia does

not list unhappiness or " depression " as one of the consequences of

hypothyroidism. But suppose you began to experience " muscle weakness,

cramps...dry and flaky skin, hair loss ... weight gain " ? How would this make

you feel emotionally? - depressed, probably. Just as hypothyroidism (hypo =

low) is a thyroid gland that produces too little, hyperthyroidism is a thyroid

glad that produces too much. Therefore, if hypothyroidism causes depression,

then it seems logical to assume hyperthyroidism has the opposite effect, that

is, that it makes a person happy. But this is not what happens. As

psychiatrist Mark S. Gold, M.D., points out in his book The Good News About

Depression: " Depression occurs in hyperthyroidism, too " (p. 150). What are the

consequences of hyperthyroidism?: Dr. Gold lists abundant sweating, fatigue,

soft moist skin, heart palpitations, frequent bowel movements, muscular

weakness, and protruding eyeballs. So both hypo- and hyper- thyroidism cause

physical problems in the body. And both cause " depression " . This is only

logical. It is hard to feel anything but bad emotionally when your body doesn't

feel well or work properly. It has never been proved hypothyroidism affects

mood other than through its effect on the victim's experience of feeling

physically unhealthy.

 

 

Some people think chemical imbalance related to hormonal changes must be a

possible cause of " depression " because of the supposed biological causes of

women's moods at different times of their menstrual cycles. I don't find that

argument convincing, because I've known so many women whose mood and state of

mind was consistently unaffected by her menstrual cycle. Psychology professor

David G. Myers, Ph.D., labels premenstrual syndrome (PMS) a myth in his book The

Pursuit of Happiness (William Morrow & Co., 1992, pp. 84-85). Of course, some

women experience physical discomfort due to menstruation. Feeling lousy

physically is enough to put anybody in a bad mood.

 

 

Some people believe women experience undesirable mood changes for biological

reasons because of menopause. However, a study by psychologists at University

of Pittsburgh reported in 1990 found that " Menopause usually doesn't trigger

stress or depression in healthy women, and it even improves mental health for

some " . According to Rena Wing, one of the psychologists who did the study,

" Everyone expects menopause to be a stressful event, but we didn't find any

support for this myth " ( " Menopausal stress may be a myth " , USA Today, July 16,

1990, p. 1D).

 

 

It is also widely believed that women go through a period of depression for

biological reasons after giving birth to a child. It's called postpartum

depression. In his book The Making of a Psychiatrist, Dr. David Viscott quotes

Dr. George Maslow, a physician doing an obstetrical residency, making the

following remark: " Come on, Viscott, do you really believe in postpartum

depression? I've seen maybe two in the last three years. I think it's a lot of

shit you guys [you psychiatrists] imagined to drum up business " (Pocket Books,

1972, p. 88). A woman who had given birth to eight (8) children, which in my

opinion qualifies her as an expert on the subject of postpartum depression, told

me what she called " postpartum blues " are real, but she attributed postpartum

blues to psychological rather than physiological causes. " I don't know about

the physiological causes " , she said, but " so much of it is psychological. " She

said " You feel awful about your looks " , because in our society a woman is

" supposed " to be thin, and for at least a short time after giving birth a woman

just isn't. She also said after childbirth a woman feels considerable " physical

exhaustion " . Childbirth also is the beginning of new or increased parental

obligations, which if we are honest we must admit are quite burdensome. The

arrival of new or additional parental obligations and the realization of the

negative ways new or additional parenthood obligations will affect a woman's (or

man's) life is an obvious non-biological explanation for postpartum depression.

It may not be until the actual birth of the child that parents realize how

parenthood changes their lives for the worse, but a letter from a female friend

of mine who at the time was only three months pregnant with her first child

illustrates that depression associated with childbirth may come long before the

postpartum period: She said she was frequently breaking down in tears because

she thought with a child her life would never the same and that she would be a

" prisoner " and wouldn't have time to do what she wanted in life. A reason these

psychological causes are often not candidly acknowledged and postpartum (or

pre-partum) blues instead attributed to unproven biological causes is our

reluctance to admit the downside of parenthood.

 

 

Another theory of biologically caused depression is based on stroke damage in

the left front region of the brain causing depression. What makes it seem

possible this might be neurologically caused rather than being a reaction to the

situation a person finds himself in because of having had a stroke is stroke

damage in the right front of the brain allegedly causing " undue cheerfulness. "

However, a careful reading of books and articles about neurology for the most

part doesn't support the allegation of undue cheerfulness from right front brain

damage. Instead, what most neurological literature indicates sometimes results

from right front stroke-related brain damage is anosagnosia, usually described

as lack of concern or inability to know their own problems, not happiness or

cheerfulness (e.g., Dr. Oliver Sacks in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

and Other Clinical Tales, Harper & Row, 1985, p. 5).

 

 

Perhaps the most often heard argument is that antidepressant drugs wouldn't

work if the cause of depression was not biological. But antidepressant drugs

don't work. As psychiatrist Peter Breggin, M.D., said in 1994, " there's no

evidence that antidepressants are especially effective " (Talking Back to Prozac,

St. Martin's Press, p. 200). In studies placebos often do as well. Even if

so-called antidepressants did help, that wouldn't prove a biological cause of

" depression " any more than would feeling better from taking marijuana or cocaine

or drinking liquor.

 

 

A careful reading of the books and articles by psychiatrists and psychologists

alleging biological causes of the severe unhappiness we call depression usually

reveals purely psychological causes that explain it adequately, even when the

author believes he has given a good example of biologically caused depression.

For example, in Holiday of Darkness: A Psychologist's Personal Journey Out of

His Depression (John Wiley & Sons, 1982), an autobiographical book by York

University psychology professor Norman S. Endler, Ph.D., he alleges his

unhappiness or so-called depression " was biochemically induced " (p. xiv). He

says " my affective disorder was primarily biochemical and physiological " (p.

162). But from his own words it's obvious his depression was due primarily to

unreturned love when a woman he got emotionally involved with, Ann, decided to

" wind down " her relationship with him (pp. 2-5) and when he suffered a career

setback (loss of a research grant) at about the same time (p. 23). Despite his

claims of biochemical causation, nowhere does he cite any medical or biological

tests showing he had any kind of biological, biochemical, or neurological

abnormalities. He can't, because no valid biological test exists that tests for

the presence of any so-called mental illness, including allegedly biologically

caused unhappiness (or " depression " ). Similarly, in The Broken Brain,

psychiatry professor Nancy Andreasen gives the example of Bill, a pediatrician,

whose recurrent depression she thinks illustrates that " People who suffer from

mental illness suffer from a sick or broken brain [emphasis Andreasen's], not

from weak will, laziness, bad character, or bad upbringing " (p. 8). But she

seems to overlook the fact that Bill's allegedly biologically caused recurrent

depressions occurred when his father died, when he was not permitted to graduate

from medical school on schedule, when his first wife was diagnosed with cancer

and died, when his second wife was unfaithful to him, when he was arrested for

public intoxication during an argument with her and this was reported in the

local newspaper, and when his license to practice medicine was suspended because

of stigma from psychiatric " treatment " he received (pp. 2-7).

 

 

One of the reasons for theorizing about biological causes of severe unhappiness

or " depression " is sometimes people are unhappy for reasons that aren't

apparent, even to them. The reason this happens is what psychoanalysts call the

unconscious: " Freud's investigations shocked the Western world ... Comparing the

mind to an iceberg, largely submerged and invisible, he told us that the greater

part of the mind is irrational and unconscious, with only the tip of the

preconscious and conscious showing above the surface. He maintained that the

larger, unconscious part - much of it sexual - is more important in guiding our

lives than the rational part, even though we deceive ourselves into believing it

is the other way around " (Ladas, et al., The G Spot And Other Recent Discoveries

About Human Sexuality, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1982, pp. 6-7). In An

Elementary Textbook of Psychoanalysis, Charles Brenner, M.D., says " the majority

of mental functioning goes on without consciousness... We believe today

that...mental operations which are decisive in determining the behavior of the

individual...even complex and decisive ones - may be quite unconscious " (Int'l

Univ. Press, 1955, p. 24). A news magazine article in 1990 reported that

" Scientists studying normal rather than impaired subjects are also finding

evidence that the mind is composed of specialized processors that operate below

the conscious level. ...Freud appears to have been correct about the existence

of a vast unconscious realm " (U.S. News & World Report, October 22, 1990, pp.

60-63). People's unhappiness or so-called depression being caused by life

experience is not always obvious, because the relevant mental processes and

memories are often hidden in the unconscious parts of their minds.

 

 

I believe unhappiness or so-called depression is always the result of life

experience. There is no convincing evidence unhappiness or " depression " is ever

biologically caused. The brain is part of our biology, but there is no evidence

severe unhappiness or " depression " is sometimes biologically caused any more

than bad TV programs are sometimes electronically caused. " [T]he question is

not how to get cured, but how to live " (Joseph Conrad, quoted by Thomas Szasz,

The Myth of Psychotherapy, Syracuse Univ. Press, 1988, title page). " When

mental health professionals point to spurious genetic and biochemical causes, "

of depression and recommend drugs rather than learning better ways of living,

" they encourage psychological helplessness and discourage personal and social

growth " of the sort needed to really avoid unhappiness or " depression " and live

a meaningful and happy life (Peter Breggin, M.D., " Talking Back to Prozac "

Psychology Today magazine, July/Aug 1994, p. 72).

 

 

THE AUTHOR, Lawrence Stevens, is a lawyer whose practice has included

representing psychiatric " patients " . His pamphlets are not copyrighted. You

are encouraged to make copies for distribution to those who you think will

benefit.

 

 

1998 UPDATE:

" ...there are no clinical tests for the 'chemical imbalances' that may

contribute to depression. " Harvard Men's Health Watch (published by Harvard

Medical School) December 1998, page 6 (underline added).

2000 UPDATES

" Brain scans cannot distinguish a depressed person from a nondepressed person

and they have not located a cause for any psychiatric disorder. Indeed, they

are mainly used in biopsychiatry to promote the profession to lay audiences by

giving the false impression that radiological technology can distinguish between

normal people and those with psychiatric diagnoses. The usual sleight of hand

involves comparing photographs of a brain scan of a depressed patient and a

nondepressed patient where there happen to be other differences between the two

brains. Sometimes the differences simply reflect normal variation and sometimes

they reflect drug damage. Brain scans cannot show differences between the

brains of depressed and normal patients because no such differences have been

demonstrated. " Peter R. Breggin, M.D., in his book Reclaiming Our Children

(Perseus Books, Cambridge, Mass., 2000), page 293.

" A serotonin deficiency for depression has not been found. ... Still, patients

are often given the impression that a definitive serotonin deficiency in

depression is firmly established. ... The result is an undue inflation of the

drug market, as well as an unfortunate downplaying of the need for psychological

treatments for many patients. " Joseph Glenmullen, M.D., clinical instructor in

psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in his book Prozac Backlash (Simon &

Schuster, New York, 2000), pages 197-198.

 

2001 UPDATE

" Part 6/Psychiatric Disorders

" ENDOGENOUS DEPRESSION AND MANIC-DEPRESSIVE DISEASE

" Etiology

....

" Biochemical Theories The biogenic monoamines (norepinephrine, serotonin, and

dopamine) are the key elements in these theories. ... However, the

aforementioned CSF [cerebro-spinal fluid] findings have not been consistent; in

some patients with depressive illness, the CSF concentrations of bioamine

metabolites are entirely normal. Most of the neurochemical theories of

depression have been the result of reasoning backwards from the known effects

antidepressants on various neurotransmitters. ...serotonin and its pathways are

currently most strongly implicated in the genesis of depression; however, the

reader should be reminded that only a decade ago it was widely held that

depletion of norepinephrine fulfilled this role. ...

" [T]he biogenic amine hypothesis...leaves several fundamental questions

unanswered. ... Why are the therapeutic results so inconsistent with the use

of tricyclic antidepressants, the MAO inhibitors, and the serotonin reuptake

inhibitors, all of which should favorably influence the balance of biogenic

amines at the proper receptor sites? And why are the clinical effects of these

drugs delayed for weeks while the biochemical reactions are almost immediate?

.... At the present time, it must be conceded that there is no reliable biologic

test for depression. ...

Psychosocial theories ... Among patients with primary depressive disorders,

life events of a stressful nature were found to have occurred more frequently in

the months preceding the onset of depression than in matched control groups. In

the study of Thomson and Hendrie, this was equally true of patients with a

positive family history of depression and those without such a history. Nor did

patients with endogenous depression differ in this respect from those with

reactive depression. " (In other words, even people with supposedly endogenous

depression had good reason, in terms of life-experience, to feel despondent or

" depressed. " )

Maurice Victor, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Neurology, Dartmouth Medical

School; and Allan H. Ropper, M.D., Professor and Chairman of Neurology, Tufts

University School of Medicine, Adams and Victor's Principles of Neurology -

Seventh Edition, McGraw-Hill Medical Publishing Division, New York, 2001, pp.

1616-1618.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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