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Silvia Costales, MFT, BCN

Silvia Costales, MFT, BCNSilvia Costales, MFT, BCNSilvia Costales, MFT, BCN
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Silvia Costales, MFT, BCN

Silvia Costales, MFT, BCNSilvia Costales, MFT, BCNSilvia Costales, MFT, BCN
  • Home
  • Additional Information
    • For Referring Providers
    • More About Psychotherapy
    • More About Neurofeedback
    • More About Silvia
    • Resources

More recent articles

Scientists Find No Evidence That Depression Is Caused by “Chemical Imbalance” or Low Serotonin Level


This is really old news, but unfortunately, many people are still unaware.


A few nuggets from the article:

“Our view is that patients should not be told that depression is  caused by low serotonin or by a chemical imbalance, and they should not  be led to believe that antidepressants work by targeting these unproven abnormalities. We do not understand what antidepressants are doing to  the brain exactly, and giving people this sort of misinformation  prevents them from making an informed decision about whether to take  antidepressants or not.”

Co-author Dr. Mark Horowitz, a training  psychiatrist and Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry at UCL and  NELFT, said: “I had been taught that depression was caused by low  serotonin in my psychiatry training and had even taught this to students  in my own lectures. Being involved in this research was eye-opening and  feels like everything I thought I knew has been flipped upside down.

“One  interesting aspect in the studies we examined was how strong an effect  adverse life events played in depression, suggesting low mood is a  response to people’s lives and cannot be boiled down to a simple  chemical equation.”

Professor Moncrieff added: “Thousands of people suffer from side effects of antidepressants, including the severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise.  We believe this situation has been driven partly by the false belief  that depression is due to a chemical imbalance. It is high time to  inform the public that this belief is not grounded in science.”  


https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-find-no-evidence-that-depression-is-caused-by-chemical-imbalance-or-low-serotonin-levels/

My Blog

Helpful Resources

How to Get Rid of Depression

How to Work with Difficult Feelings

How to Get Rid of Depression

Stephen Ilardi's Therapeutic Lifestyle Change for Depression (Youtube video) Ilardi defines depression as a chronic inflammatory condition, contextualizes it in human evolution, and summarizes the  research on what works to get rid of it.

Healing Shame

How to Work with Difficult Feelings

How to Get Rid of Depression

Brené Brown on Shame (Youtube video) Brown shares her unique research and wonderful humility  to illustrate the universal problem of shame in human psychology and  relationships.

How to Work with Difficult Feelings

How to Work with Difficult Feelings

How to Work with Difficult Feelings

In this blog post, Hillary Jacobs Hendel, psychotherapist and author of "It's not Always Depression", explains the change triangle and how it can help you work with difficult feelings or states and connect to your deeper truth.

Risk Factors for Chronic Illness

Risk Factors for Chronic Illness

How to Work with Difficult Feelings

Gabor Maté's 4 Risk Factors for Chronic Illness This profound talk lays out a deep and truly integrative understanding  of human being. Maté describes 4 risk factors for chronic illness born  of our adaptive and imperative striving for attachment during childhood.  The goal of psychotherapy to help change these deeply wired templates  of behavior. The audio is a little poor for the first few minutes--hang  in there.

Chemical Imbalance is a Myth

Risk Factors for Chronic Illness

Chemical Imbalance is a Myth

Psychiatrist Kelly Brogan, MD, author of "A Mind of Your Own: How Women  Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives"  has written a fantastic  blog post (Jan 2019) on the chemical imbalance myth. The long and short  is, "in six decades of research, the serotonin (or norepinephrine, or dopamine)  theory of depression and anxiety has not achieved scientific credibility".

Communication

Risk Factors for Chronic Illness

Chemical Imbalance is a Myth

Here is a cute WikiHow I found on Non-Violent Communication.  NVC is an elegant model for communication that can help you resolve conflicts in any relationship. It takes a little effort to learn but this invaluable tool will serve you all your life!


Meditation Made Easy

Meditation Made Easy

Meditation Made Easy

Whenever a client tells me me that they want to make meditation a part of their lives I recommend Yoga Nidra. I've found it's a great place to start because, more than any other type of meditation, people find it easy to do, and so they actually do it! Simply lie down, close your eyes, and listen to a recording. You can find some good ones to try here:

https://youtu.be/Rac1pnsYaTE

https://www.irest.org/try-irest-now

https://youtu.be/YbsLWd_p6PI


Self-Criticism

Meditation Made Easy

Meditation Made Easy

Self-Acceptance Project If self-criticism is a problem for you, here are 22 interviews with  various psychotherapists and teachers all asking--how do I stop?

More Confidence

Meditation Made Easy

The Power of Breathing

Power Poses (TED talk) Want to feel more confident? Here's a quick trick!

The Power of Breathing

True Sources of Depression & Anxiety Pt 1

The Power of Breathing

Do not underestimate the simple power of breathing correctly!  When we breathe by expanding our lower torso, rather than with our  chest (as most of us do) we increase blood blood flow to our "second  brain", the gut. Proper breathing improves digestion, assimilation,  absorption of nutrients, gut motility, prevents compression of spinal  vertebrae (i.e back pain), prevents menstrual cramps, improves posture  and makes us feel more calm and confident! Especially if you're having IBS or any kind of problem with digestion, this is something you have  complete power over and can do immediately to reduce pain and feel  better. Read more at Erik Peper's excellent blog, the source of the video links above.

True Sources of Depression & Anxiety Pt 1

True Sources of Depression & Anxiety Pt 1

True Sources of Depression & Anxiety Pt 1

The Real Causes of Depression (article) Like many people, the author, Johann Hari was offered medication (based on the false premise of "chemical imbalance")  and little actual treatment for his symptoms of depression. He is  enlightened in part through conversations with Dr. Vincent Felitti, who  created the famous ACEs study which shows how adverse experiences in childhood dramatically increase  the likelihood of mental and physical illness in adulthood." ...if he had just told people what my doctor told me – that their  brains were broken, this was why they were so distressed, and the only  solution was to be drugged – they may never have been able to understand  the deeper causes of their problem, and they would never have been  released from them."

True Sources of Depression & Anxiety Pt 2

True Sources of Depression & Anxiety Pt 1

True Sources of Depression & Anxiety Pt 1

Another beautiful article on the true sources of depression and anxiety by Johann Hari.  He asks, "when will we learn that our pain makes sense?", defines the  social and environmental causes of mental malaise, highlights our gross  overuse of chemical interventions, and asks us to be more thoughtful. Of particular note is the distinction made between "chemical imbalance", a  concept neuroscientist Marc Lewis finds crude at best for describing  actual brain changes associated with depression, and "synaptic pruning" --a neuroplastic process: "Your  brain sheds synapses you don’t use, and if you are pushed into a pained response for too long, your brain can shed synapses, making it harder  to navigate away from dark thoughts."  Neuroplastic changes may  have some chemical component, but they require neuroplastic  interventions (i.e. learning, psychotherapy, experiences, neurofeedback)  o be properly addressed and resolved.

More Recommended Books

Relationships

Relationships

Relationships

A General Theory of Love (Amazon link) If you wonder why it is that "the heart has its reasons  which reason knows nothing of", the answers are in this book, which also  further explains how and why psychotherapy can make all the difference.

Trauma

Relationships

Relationships

The Body Keeps the Score (Amazon link) For far too long, trauma, abuse and  neglect, and their  causative role in mental and physical illness have been under-recognized  and under-appreciated.  This important book begins to correct that.

Anger

Overeating

Overeating

The Dance of Anger (Amazon link) The closest thing to therapy in a book. This book can  help anyone to manage their anger and improve their relationships.

Overeating

Overeating

Overeating

Overcoming Overeating (Amazon link) The best book on the topic. I've seen it change lives.

Links to Information about Neurofeedback

50 Years of Science

Highly Efffective for Depression

50 Years of Science

There is a vast and growing body of research literature supporting the  effectiveness of neurofeedback. For more information just type  “neurofeedback” or "EEG biofeedback" into PubMed to see thousands of  scientific articles from peer-reviewed journals. Alternatively, you  could purchase a copy of the 3rd edition (2016) of Evidence Based Practice in Biofeedback and Neurofeedback, or check the neurofeedback bibliography available here: http://www.isnr.net/resources.

An End to Anxiety

Highly Efffective for Depression

50 Years of Science

Read about three different individuals with anxiety who benefited greatly from neurofeedback, in this quick blog post written by my talented colleague in San Francisco, Michael Quirke, MFT.


CNN ran this short clip on neurofeedback for anxiety and ADHD in October 2015: https://youtu.be/Ztl6lclnkxg.

Highly Efffective for Depression

Highly Efffective for Depression

Highly Efffective for Depression

This 2021 meta-analytical study shows that neurofeedback tends to have a large, significant effect in decreasing depression. https://www.neuroregulation.org/article/view/21482/14068

Better than Meds

Better than Meds

Highly Efffective for Depression

This 2017 article summarizes what we now know about how poorly  psychotropic medication works, and then contrasts this with  neurofeedback's generally impressive outcomes: The Crisis in Psychopharmacology Provides an Opportunity for NeuroRegulation Treatments to Gain Widespread Acceptance

Plain English

Better than Meds

General History

This TED talk video provides a wonderful introductory overview of neurofeedback in plain English: https://youtu.be/4zyt0LCwbYI.

General History

Better than Meds

General History

For a general history of the field I recommend Jim Robbin’s “A Symphony in the Brain” (Amazon link).

Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity

For a better understanding of the potential and many applications of neurofeedback, I recommend Paul Swingle’s “Biofeedback for the Brain” (Amazon link).

QEEG

Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity

Here's a cute piece from the Atlantic (June 2017) about the experience of a qEEG. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/06/this-is-your-brain-on-qeeg/532035/

CME's

Neuroplasticity

Regaining control of the mind

Psychiatrists and physicians can earn CME credit for reading this  continuing education article in the Psychiatric Times (November 2016): http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/neurofeedback-significance-psychiatry

Regaining control of the mind

Modulation of Intrinsic Brain Connectivity by Implicit Neurofeedback

Regaining control of the mind

 This 2020 scientific journal article outlines the
neural mechanisms underlying neurofeedback and examines converging evidence for the efficacy of neurofeedback as an
adjunctive treatment for PTSD. https://jmvfh.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/jmvfh.2019-0032

Do Antidepressants Cure or Create Abnormal Brain States?

Modulation of Intrinsic Brain Connectivity by Implicit Neurofeedback

Modulation of Intrinsic Brain Connectivity by Implicit Neurofeedback

" we propose in this Essay that an alternative “drug-centred” model can  better explain observed drug effects in psychiatric conditions."

https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030240

Modulation of Intrinsic Brain Connectivity by Implicit Neurofeedback

Modulation of Intrinsic Brain Connectivity by Implicit Neurofeedback

Modulation of Intrinsic Brain Connectivity by Implicit Neurofeedback

"It appears that a single session of implicit infra-low frequency  electroencephalographic neurofeedback leads to significant changes in  intrinsic brain connectivity. "

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00192/full

Copyright © 2023 Silvia Costales, MFT, BCN - All Rights Reserved.

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