Brain Scans, Exposing the Fraud

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http://www.cchr.org/doctors/eng/page15.htm

 

Brain Scans, Exposing the Fraud

 

 

Many physicians in the United States would remember a much vaunted

advertisement placed in newspapers in 1995 by the National Alliance

for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) as part of its

campaign, " Depression: A Flaw in Chemistry, Not Character. "

Biopsychologist Elliot S. Valenstein, Ph.D. points out how misleading

this was: " After describing depression as a physical disease requiring

medication, just as diabetes requires insulin treatment, the ad makes

the claim that research has shown that depression results from an

insufficient level of serotonin in the frontal lobes of the brain. A

`brain scan' depicting enlarged ventricles is included in the ad, with

the statement that this condition has been `found in many severe cases

of depression.' " However, " this finding has no logical connection to

any biochemical deficiency, let alone to a specific deficiency of

serotonin in the frontal lobes.

 

" The fact that the information in the ad is completely in error seems

not to have troubled anyone. " The ad promotes the message that now we

can know that depression is caused by a biochemical abnormality, it

can be " curable instead of just treatable. " In fact, the brain scans

do not firmly establish that biochemical imbalances cause depression

and that drugs can correct this.

 

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