Many psychiatrists assert that mental illness is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. But there are no medical tests to prove this. Chemical imbalance is a theory that does not hold up to intense scientific scrutiny.
Ronald J Diamond M.D. of the University of Wisconsin Department Of Psychiatry has this to say about mental illness being caused by physical causes, not chemical imbalance.
“There is a very real possibility that what seems to be a psychiatric problem is caused by some physical illness…The depressed patient may have an under active thyroid
gland…increased irritability is thought to be caused by his marital problems,
may actually have a brain tumor causing the personality changes and exacerbating
longstanding marital issues.”
There are other physical causes that can underlie “mental” disorders. Even nutritional issues can cause mental disturbances.
For instance, it is necessary  for human beings to consume Omega-3 fats, which can’t be manufactured in the human body. The richest source of these fats is from oily fish, including mackerel, herring, sardines salmon and fresh tuna.
Studies have shown that when a country’s population eats a lot of fish, their incidence of depression decreases.
According to double-blind placebo controlled trials, when depressed patients were given omega-3 supplementation they showed great improvement.
One of these studies, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, gave twenty patients who were on antidepressants (and who had not improved) a concentrated form of omega 3 fat. After 3 weeks, they showed major improvement.
There were other trials done, all showing that adding omega-3 fats to the diet improved depressed patients. This alone tends to disprove the chemical imbalance
theory.
When all of the trials were pooled, the analysis came back that “…omega-3 fats reduced depressive symptoms by an average of 53% and that there was a correlation between dose and depressive symptom improvement, meaning that higher dose omega-3 was more effective that lower dose.” Side effects and the risks of the antidepressants were eliminated by the use of omega-3 fats.
Psychiatrists, per their own experimentation and testing conclude that fish oil is more effective that antidepressant drugs with no side effects.
So why do they persist in the chemical imbalance theory, which justifies their drugging of their patients, including infants and toddlers?
To answer that, one has to follow the money trail. Antidepressants are big business. On this class of psychiatric drugs alone, 86 billion dollars a year are spent by Americans. This
doesn’t include profits made by other pharmaceutical drugs used to treat
conditions claimed to exist by psychiatrists, such as ADD, ADHD and Bi-polar.
Not only do antidepressants do nothing to prevent or improve the condition of depression, they are not safe, and can lead to serious side effects. Under the onslaught of psychiatric drug use, the brain itself can atrophy.
Researcher Nancy Andreasen found evidence that the use of antipsychotic drugs can cause the brain to shrink, especially with long term use of the drug.
With mounting evidence of psychiatric drug damage, more people, even some psychiatrists themselves, are broadcasting a chilling warning against their
use.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/?pagination=false
http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/diamond.htm
http://www.foodforthebrain.org/content.asp?id_Content=1635
http://or.americanmentalhealth.com/index.tpl?page=12013858151685145