Dr. Joanna Moncrieff is a practicing psychiatrist and researcher. In 2022 she was the leading researcher of an umbrella review published in Nature that “aimed to synthesise and evaluate evidence on whether depression is associated with lowered serotonin concentration or activity.” She is the author of several books about psychiatry and psychiatric drugs including The Myth of the Chemical Cure and The Bitterest Pill.
In this episode we discuss her research findings which indicate that there is not a “chemical imbalance” in the brain at the root of depressing and other psychiatric “disorders.” We further discuss what the actual roots of depression are, and what people might do to deal with their depression if they do not want to take pharmaceuticals.
Episode 7