The drugs may not be a cure or any real support for any one theory but they certainly have been the first real decrease in human suffering and disability. This is true, regardless of the full explanation of the details of how they work to reduce pathological depression.

The success of these drugs is worth SO MUCH more than useless speculation (at this point) of how they do this. Theory is not always as useful in the lessening of misery as experimental fact.

I also couldn’t agree more with your answers, Dr. Grohol- to

“@jamworks — Agree or disagree with the research, but there’s decades worth of large-scale, randomized studies that shows psychotherapy works for virtually all types of depression (there are even some that shows it can work on its own against the most severe depressions).

@LilyRose — That’s true of all treatments for depression, absolutely. I only wish we had some way, some *reliable* way, of determining which treatments would be best for which person ahead of time. Today, despite a solid decade of significant brain research and MRI scans, it’s nothing short of educated guesses and trial and error.
———–

My readings in the History of Psychiatry are truly terrifying.
Here’s a wonderful insight into the REAL-LIFE fate of Medical Innovators who are 100% CORRECT! Look at what happened to the first Dr. (Ignaz Semmelweiss) who insisted in about 1850-60 on requiring OB/GYN physicians in his clinic to just WASH THEIR HANDS between patients – after coming from the dissecting room, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

Semmelweis’ observations went against all established scientific medical opinion of the time. For his brilliant and pioneering discovery, he was thrown out of the Vienna Medical Society, deemed insane, and eventually beaten to death in an “asylum” by the attendants.

His eventual fate?

In 1865 János Balassa wrote a document referring Semmelweis to a mental institution. On 30 July Ferdinand von Hebra lured him, under the pretense of visiting one of Hebra’s “new Institutes”, to a Viennese insane asylum located in Lazarettgasse, not far from the General Hospital — definitely not one of Vienna’s best. Semmelweis surmised what was happening and tried to leave. He was severely beaten by several guards, secured in a straitjacket and confined to a darkened cell. Apart from the straitjacket, treatments at the mental institution included dousing with cold water and administering castor oil, a laxative. He died after two weeks, on 13 August 1865, aged 47, from a gangrenous wound, possibly inflicted by the beating. The autopsy revealed extensive internal injuries, the cause of death pyemia — blood poisoning.

This is STILL essentially the fate of medical geniuses among us who DARE to disagree with the long-held but 100% WRONG Opinions of their O-so-pompous Colleagues. Modern Psychiatry is a truly horrific joke on the patients, BUT a HUGE $$$-maker for these MD-charlatans and BigPharma.

Guess which wins – MONEY or HEALING THE PATIENT? The profession itself is sick. And propagates KNOWN LIES for $$MONEY$$. To call them “unethical” is merely scratching the surface- their (in general) UTTER LACK of common medical Ethics is DISGUSTING.

Perhaps you’re aware of the work being done studying the Pet Scans revealing that a region of the brain called the Brodman Area 25 which showed to be overactive during periods of “profound negative mood (sadness)” That’s their phraseology – don’tcha just love jargon?

They’re stimulating the area (it’s in the prefrontal cortex) with electrode implants to create a paradoxical effect and calm the area down, the theory being that there’s a co-realation – perhaps causal – between BA25 and depression.

They keep looking. But co-incidence does not equal causality. On the other hand, is determining causality a requisite for using the knowledge as treatment?