So You Think You Know Why She Is Depressed, Salerian A

                                          Letters From Modern Psychiatry

                         Alen J Salerian MD     www.modern psychiatry.gr

                               So You Think You Know Why She Is Depressed

                        Jackie,Salerian AJ,oil pastel.

     Is it strange that my opera lover aunt Era feels no shame when she confidently offers solutions for depression, anxiety or gambling problems? She is clueless about physics , chemistry or biology.    

    Sadly, she is not alone ,for many well educated people also believe behavioral problems  can be understood by only analyzing stress and stressors:   No  familiarity with amygdala, hippocampus , prefrontal cortex or levels of serotonin and  brain derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF) is needed before forming an opinion about psychological  problems.

    You don’t see this level of arrogant ignorance in cardiology or engineering.

   Our collective ignorance of brain function and emotions are partly a collateral damage from Sigmund Freud.

   Freud’s fascinating yet unscientific teachings have trivialized psychiatry by promoting the impression that easily observable negatives of life-  bad mothers or cheap bosses- may explain psychological problems. Brain and emotions are much more complex of course: brain function depends on the collaborative  labor of  billions of neurons and and diverse chemicals.

  It is easy to observe bad mothers , abusive spouses or  laziness .In contrast it  is much more difficult  to uncover abnormalities of serotonin, dopamine ,BDNF.

  Luckily, nowadays I’m less disturbed by my aunt’s psychiatric opinions. I say to her “You may be correct about Ms XX but what if her amygdala is no good ?”.