"When it was found that psychoactive drugs affect neurotransmitter levels in the brain, as evidenced mainly by the levels of their breakdown products in the spinal fluid, the theory arose that the cause of mental illness is an abnormality in the brain’s concentration of these chemicals that is specifically countered by the appropriate drug. ... Thus, instead of developing a drug to treat an abnormality, an abnormality was postulated to fit a drug."
Additionally, it turns out that psychoactive drugs are having long-lasting changes on the brain that may be worse than the original symptoms for which they were prescribed:
With long-term use of psychoactive drugs, the result is, in the words of Steve Hyman, a former director of the NIMH and until recently provost of Harvard University, “substantial and long-lasting alterations in neural function.” As quoted by Whitaker, the brain, Hyman wrote, begins to function in a manner “qualitatively as well as quantitatively different from the normal state.” After several weeks on psychoactive drugs, the brain’s compensatory efforts begin to fail, and side effects emerge that reflect the mechanism of action of the drugs. For example, the SSRIs may cause episodes of mania, because of the excess of serotonin. Antipsychotics cause side effects that resemble Parkinson’s disease, because of the depletion of dopamine (which is also depleted in Parkinson’s disease). ...
[snipping bit about pre-frontal cortex atrophying....]
Getting off the drugs is exceedingly difficult, according to Whitaker, because when they are withdrawn the compensatory mechanisms are left unopposed. When Celexa is withdrawn, serotonin levels fall precipitously because the presynaptic neurons are not releasing normal amounts and the postsynaptic neurons no longer have enough receptors for it. Similarly, when an antipsychotic is withdrawn, dopamine levels may skyrocket. The symptoms produced by withdrawing psychoactive drugs are often confused with relapses of the original disorder, which can lead psychiatrists to resume drug treatment, perhaps at higher doses."
> In an exchange in the NRB years ago Lewontin forced a physician to
> deny
> vigorously that he had claimed that germs caused TB.
>
> TB only occurs, of course, in the 'presence' of a bacillus; but its
> _causes_ Lewontin argued were social. I don't think one can assert a
> particular cause of mental illness --or even assert it exists: that
> remains to be clearly established. My symptoms certainly existed, but
> whether they constituted a definable "illness" or not remains to be
> established by future research. And Doug must have had his tongue in
> the
> corner of his mouth when he typed, "what about the possibility." That
> hardly gets us anyplace. The answer to such a suggestion is always the
> same, Sure, but who knows.
> ays to kill a CEO)