[psyc]

Mentally ill person here. I haven’t heard a mental health professional use the phrase ‘chemical imbalance’ or anything similar in 20 years. It’s my understanding it has been deprecated. It’s mostly repeated by laypeople in ignorance. It’s hard to flush something like that out of the popular lexicon, once established.

There’s a lot of maddeningly persistent misinformation about mental health on Internet forums.

[dboreham]

I'm fairly sure I've seen tv drug ads in the past few years use the phrase "chemical imbalance".

[psyc]

They have a clear incentive to exaggerate a) the effectiveness of the drugs, and b) how well they understand how they work. There is an important distinction between knowing how drugs affect brain chemistry, vs knowing how they alleviate symptoms. The latter is still more empirical than theoretical.

[Gibbon1]

The widespread and increasing use of psychotropic drugs says that 'chemical imbalance' still serves as the foundation.

[abellerose]

Person with gender dysphoria here. I've still heard the phrase in Canada by nurses & staff. Also heard it several years ago when living in USA by doctors & staff. Unsure why you think I was referring to internet forums? I thought those were deprecated since 2009.

[psyc]

https://www.google.com/search?q=chemical+imbalance+theory

[abellerose]

Unsure why you're linking that. Do you not realize by my first comment that I'm describing the theory as nonsense compared to what I wrote? edit: ah thanks for the clarification.

[psyc]

My intent was to support your comment, not contradict it. By reassuring anyone who might read this that the chemical imbalance angle has rightly fallen out of favor.