Abstract
Objective: To discuss the impact on the depressed patient of being told that he or she is suffering from a “chemical imbalance”.
Conclusions: This ‘explanation’ encourages a flight from self-reflection - for both patient and psychiatrist - and is likely to perpetuate the former's suffering and the latter's ignorance.
“I have never seen a patient about whom I could say that his depression was unrelated to some prior anguish, or about whom I could say that his depression came from nowhere and its origin had to be sought exclusively in a metabolic disorder.”