Post by Admin on Apr 22, 2024 10:58:05 GMT
Researchers: Depression Is “A Normal Brain Responding to Stress or Adversity”
Moncrieff et al. write, “There is abundant evidence that it is the context of our lives and not the balance of our chemicals that offer the most insight into depression.”
By Peter Simons -April 15, 2024
www.madinamerica.com/2024/04/researchers-depression-is-a-normal-brain-responding-to-stress-or-adversity/
“Difficult lives explain depression better than broken brains,” according to researchers in a recent letter to the editor in Molecular Psychiatry.
The authors, led by Joanna Moncrieff, argue that there is no real evidence for brain differences in depression but that there is convincing evidence of the role of social and environmental factors as a cause.
“We suggest that in the absence of convincing proof of a pathological process, it is more likely that depression is part of the range of emotional reactions to the circumstances of life that are typical of humans,” write Moncrieff et al.
“We agree that mental activity arises from brain activity, but it seems more likely that depression is the result not of a faulty brain but rather a normal brain responding to stress or adversity: in other words, a behavioral state best understood at the level of the mind (that is, the thoughts, feelings, and actions of human beings in their social context) and not of the brain,” they add.
Their article comes as a response to four other letters to the editor by proponents of the biomedical model of depression—those who consider depression to be a “brain illness” first and foremost.
Moncrieff et al. write, “There is abundant evidence that it is the context of our lives and not the balance of our chemicals that offer the most insight into depression.”
By Peter Simons -April 15, 2024
www.madinamerica.com/2024/04/researchers-depression-is-a-normal-brain-responding-to-stress-or-adversity/
“Difficult lives explain depression better than broken brains,” according to researchers in a recent letter to the editor in Molecular Psychiatry.
The authors, led by Joanna Moncrieff, argue that there is no real evidence for brain differences in depression but that there is convincing evidence of the role of social and environmental factors as a cause.
“We suggest that in the absence of convincing proof of a pathological process, it is more likely that depression is part of the range of emotional reactions to the circumstances of life that are typical of humans,” write Moncrieff et al.
“We agree that mental activity arises from brain activity, but it seems more likely that depression is the result not of a faulty brain but rather a normal brain responding to stress or adversity: in other words, a behavioral state best understood at the level of the mind (that is, the thoughts, feelings, and actions of human beings in their social context) and not of the brain,” they add.
Their article comes as a response to four other letters to the editor by proponents of the biomedical model of depression—those who consider depression to be a “brain illness” first and foremost.