Last year, research cast doubt on the dominant ‘chemical imbalance’ theory of depression. Now two persuasive books by scientists Philip Gold and Camilla Nord offer very different causes of the illness – though both are optimistic about our future treatment of the ‘cancer of the self’
f you have paid attention to the science of mental health, you will have heard the theory that depression is caused by ain the brain. Since the 1990s, the common symptoms – low mood, loss of interest and pleasure, changed sleep and appetite – have been said to arise from a lack of a neurotransmitter called serotonin. By raising levels of this “happy hormone”, certain antidepressant pills such as Prozac could relieve our inner torment and return our minds to equanimity.
The condition is often accompanied by physiological changes, leading Gold to call it a ‘total-body illness’read like a medical memoir, intercutting stories from the frontline of this research with detailed scientific explanations. I found his descriptions of the condition to be painfully precise.
For many people with depression, however, the brain’s alarm bells keep ringing long after a real threat has passed. It continues to look for potential signs of danger or hostility while ignoring things that might bring reward. As Gold writes, “it’s one thing to maintain a singular focus when there is a wildfire raging nearby, but in normal life the inability to appreciate any pleasurable stimulus is a great burden”.
For some commentators, the recent downfall of the chemical imbalance theory has cast doubt on the use of existing antidepressant drugs, which were meant to restore the lost serotonin. Yet the data certainly suggests that they work better than placebos – and the authors of these two new books can explain why. For Nord, it is because antidepressant drugs help to correct the fundamental biases in someone’s perceptions of the world. This change occurs incredibly quickly.
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