[Guest]

Dear doc,
We are using medications for treatment of depression which are working by altering certain enzymes. How do we know that we are not messing around with brain chemicals and causing a permanent damage to the natural chemicals of the brain and consequently causing a permanent damage to normal brain physiology?

[Guest]

The biological treatment of mental illness is based on evidence that the brain is disordered in certain conditions. The medications tend to normalize the disordered physiology. We have no evidence of brain damage and it has been researched. You can never prove that something won't ever happen. (You can't prove the null hypothesis--is the mathematical term). We have absolutely no reason to think that permanent brain damage is an issue. I do think that there is now a tendency to call every problem a medical disorder and treat it with a chemical. That is another issue.
[quote] Dear doc,
We are using medications for treatment of depression which are working by altering certain enzymes. How do we know that we are not messing around with brain chemicals and causing a permanent damage to the natural chemicals of the brain and consequently causing a permanent damage to normal brain physiology... [/quote]