Please can you help me understand "chemical imbalance"?

Question

1. Are all clinically diagnosed mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, and OCD due to a lack of serotonin in the synapses?

2. Do all these illnesses thus require medication for life?

3. Why are other forms of treatment often given, like behavioral and cognitive? Can these also restore the levels of serotonin?

thanks!

Answer 1

FYI- serotonin is only associated with depression (meaning there is a lack thereof in depression, so SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) help relieve the chemical imbalance of depression. It is not associated with anxiety, OCD, etc.

However, disorders are either psychological or psychiatric. Psychological disorders are caused by life issues (such as a poor childhood, the death of a family member, etc), while psychiatric disorders are caused by chemical imbalances. Any disorder can be classified as psychological or psychiatric, but a disorder cannot be classified as both. Depression and anxiety tend to be psychological (meaning that they are caused by an issue, and can be cured through therapy with relatively good results). However, OCD and bipolar disorder tend to be psychiatrist (meaning that they are caused by chemical imblances, and they cannot be cured without the help of medications and that person will likely be on medications for their entire life to function normally). It is up to the psychologist to determine if the disorder is due to psychological or psychiatric issues. It is evalutated on a case by case basis. If a person is depressed, it is up to the psychologist to evaluate the circumstances. Did they have a bad childhood? Do they have issues with parents? If so, then likely these or other things are what need to be fixed. If there is nothing else wrong and there seems to be no cause for the depression, then it is likely a chemical imbalance. Therapy should ALWAYS be used as a first resort unless the person is a danger to themselves or others. However, psychologists tend not to do this and they tend to medicate too quickly and unnecessarily. Often the disorder can be solved with therapy and without medication. It is only the disorders that are truly from chemical imbalances (meaning there is no life origin or cause for rthe disorder, and that therapy has no effect on the patient), where patients will be on medication for life. This is very rare, and it tends to only happen in the more severe disorders like OCD, Bipolar Disorder, and schizophrenia. Other forms of treatment are offered because often the best treatment is to talk to someone. Most disorders are caused by an underlying issue, such as a problem with parents or with relationships. Psychologists help the person understand their own lives. Often a person is experiencing issues, but cannot see them on their own. They need an objective perspective. The psychiatrist helps point this out. This is the general idea behind therapy. However, there are numerous different types of therapy, much more than behavioral and cognitive. Behavioral therapy is a type of therapy which helps the patient to modify their daily activities in order to feel better. This is effective in instances such as anxiety and anger management and it helps the patient analyze and change their reactions and behaviors in daily circumstances. Cognitive therapy is where the psychologist helps to analyze the thought patterns of the patient. It notably points out irrational errors in cognition. Such as a person who is depressed because they feel lonely even though they've got friends. Here, the psychologist points out errors in thinking so that the patient can alter their own thinking and feel better. The most common type of therapy is a combination of both, CBT. It is the most effective type of therapy known to psychologists. However, therapy has no effect of chemicals in the brain, specifically serotonin. These disorders were never psychiatric, they were psychological, and there was never a chemical imbalance that needed to be treated. They simply had issues that needed to be dealt with. However, as you'll find, people are often on a mix of both therapy and medications. This is becoming more common, although it is hideously incorrect. Psychiatrists believe that they can kill two birds with one stone if they do both, but obviously thats not true. It's necessary to find the cause of the disorder before its treated. These psychiatrists who do this are unnecessarily medicating patients who may have psychological disorders, not psychiatric disorders, and sentencing them to a lifetime of medications what are often addictive.

WHOA WHOA WHOA, Lisa, you need to go back to school! You are totally incorrect! Depression, anxiety, and OCD are ALL classified as neurotic, meaning that they are ego dystonic. Does it even make logical sense to classify someone who is depressed as psychotic? NO WAY!

Answer 2

Not all mental disease is caused by an imbalance of serotonin, but an imbalance in the serotonin level can contribute to the symptoms of depression, etc.

The release of serotonin and other chemicals in the brain is controlled by glands. The gland may be malfunctioning for a variety of reasons. Medications like Paxil, Wellbutrin, Zoloft, Prozac, and other, stimulate the affected gland(s) in order to produce the proper amounts of the required chemical the gland produces. Sometimes the Dr. will have to tinker with the dosage, it may be too much or too little. This can be frustrating due to the amount of time required, sometimes up to 10 weeks. Having said all that, the medication is rarely required for life. The most common mistake Doctors make is they fail to treat the cause, (the defective gland), and the gland, over time, becomes dependent on the medication to stimulate it. Then, the patient will be on the medication for life. The best bet is to get the opinion of at least 3 doctors, and ensure they are treating the cause, and not just the symptoms.

Behavioral and cognitive counseling will not restore the serotonin levels. When a person has a chemical imbalance they are exhibiting behavior(s) that are abnormal, but they don't even realize it. It is difficult at times to deal with a person suffering with an imbalance and it must be known and remembered that the person has no reason to believe that thier actions are odd, because the area of the brain which controls the affected behavior is not functioning properly. There is a ramp-up period of time for the medication to begin working, and it is in this interim that counseling is required. Counseling is also required to make the person aware, not only of the bad behavior they're exhibiting, but the person must be educated on the particular disease they are affected by. Many times, a person with a chemical imbalance in the brain thinks they are OK, the rest of the world is screwed up. Counseling is a very important and integral part of a treatment program.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

Persons, pronouncing that some thing is brought about by means of a chemical imbalance just isn't saying it can be a "incapacity". You folks are so protecting. No one really knows what causes homosexuality. It's very likely genetic, or a random mutation brought about in the womb. It is usually a chemical mutation, or it's simply danger. No person can relatively determine what it without a doubt is that makes any individual homosexual. It quite would not topic WHAT makes anybody homosexual, all that concerns is that men and women are gay. It quite would not even subject if they opt for to be homosexual, given that in the end, adults must be in a position to do whatever they want in the bed room, since it does not damage any individual else.

Answer 4

Where do I begin? Your questions are great ones but very difficult to anser conclusively. Depression, Anxiety and OCD can all be treated with either nedication or therapy or both. The latter is usually the most effective. In some instances, a person may need medication for life in order to manage the illness, in other cases they may not and the only real way of establishing that fact is to try removing meds once the person has achieved a relatively long period of stability. If they relapse and begin to develop symptoms again, it is most likely endogenous and will require meds for the long haul. There are other prognostic indicators which suggest a condition is at least partially biochemical, such as strong family history and recurrent episodes despite full interepisode recovery.
In some instances, disorders like these can be triggered by events and are then sustained by the cognitive assocations formed as a result of these events and treating them from a psychodynamic or CBT perspective is often all that is required. In the case of depression, for example, those cases which fully respond to therapy alone tend to be milder and rarely manifest the psychotic symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, morbid preoccupation) seen in more severe presentations. OCD can improve with therapy alone, but generally medication is necessary to achieve better control of symptoms as it tends to almost always have a biochemical component.
Okay, now to complicate the picture a bit further in order to demonstrate the crucial link between meds and therapy. Take for example a person who becomes depressed in response to a trauma or loss, a case where we perceive the origin to be exclusively psychological. If untreated for a long period of time, it will result in altered biochemistry and meds may be needed, even if only temporarily, to enable the person to actually use the psychotherapy to make the necessary changes. The reality is that depression itself can alter serotonin and altered serotonin can result in depression. In practice, the best indicator of how to proceed usually isn't to determine which came first, the chicken or the egg, but to look at severity. This applies in all 3 disorders that you named. The more severe the disorder, the greater the likelihood that meds will be both beneficial as well as necessary.
While Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that plays the major role, particularly in depression, norepinephrine also plays a role, as does dopamine. Wellbutrin has an impact on norepinehrine (and a weak effect on dopamine which is why it also helps reduce cravings in nicotine withdrawal) and Cymbalta and Effexor do as well. Some folks who show only a partial response to a straight SSRI will respond to a combined SSRI/SNRI. Serotonin is implicated in all 3 disorders that you asked about, though most strongly with depression. The SSRI's are used to treat both depression and anxiety as well as OCD.
I hope this was helpful, but it was impossible to give a simple explanation to a complicated question, but in summary none of the disorders you asked about are all solely biochemical or solely psychological as biochemistry influences mood and mood influences biochemistry.

Answer 5

Depression sometimes has chemical problems because it is in the mental disorder family known as "psychotic" Anxiety and OCD are in the mental disorder family known as "neurotic." They are self-manifested disorders that can respond well to therapy. So my answer is, it totally depends. I would try therapy first because OCD especially can be helped with cognitive therapy. If the fears and stressors can be identified that triggers the obssessive thoughts and behaviors, then that can be adressed and managed and possibly completely relieved. If it is major depression, that usually means that there is not enough seratonin being produced or it is being inhibited by the nerve cells somehow. Medication can really help adjust that.

Littlemissmiss: Don't insult my education. I said sometimes and then I said "major depression" and yes "major depression" can be classified as psychotic. Maybe you shouldn't be a doctor if you don't know that. And I only say that because you insulted me first. I could have gone to medical school as well but I chose the law route so don't be so quick to spew facts.

Answer 6

1)The cause, and severity and longevity of each person's depression, anxiety or OCD is so individual, it is not feasible to give a blanket answer to your question. The Chemical reasons for the illnesses can vary.
2)Not necessarily, it is an individual thing.
3)There are things people can learn or can do to help themselves. They need to "want to" get better. Most people who's brain chemicals are low can "re-start" making their own proper levels of what is needed. It may be beneficial to take medication for a period of time (6 mo. - 1 yr.) to get the level up, and at some point your body will be "kick-started" into making the appropriate chemical for yourself.
Others of us, our brain has permanently stopped making what is needed in an adequate supply. For those of us in that boat, going off the medication during our lifetime would be disastrous to our well being.

Answer 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj7GmeSAxXo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E-QFljl7nY&mode=related&search=