Chemically Imbalanced: Joanna Moncrieff on the Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Mad in America

Anxiety, Mental Health, Benzo, Science, Hearingvoices, Psychology, Antipsychotic, Mentalhealth, Depression, Panicattack, Psychosis, Medicine, Health, Health & Fitness, Psychiatry, Ssri, Antidepressant

4.8 • 201 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome to this Mad in America podcast. My name is Robert Whitaker, and I'm happy today to have the pleasure of speaking with Joanna Moncrieff.

Dr. Moncrieff is a psychiatrist who works in the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. She is a Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry at University College, London.

In 1990 she co-founded the Critical Psychiatry Network, which today has about 400 psychiatrist members, about two-thirds of whom are in the United Kingdom. From my perspective, the Critical Psychiatry Network has been at the forefront of making a broad critique of the disease model of care. Without this network, I don't think that critique would be anywhere near as prominent or as sophisticated as it is today.

Dr. Moncrieff is a prolific researcher and writer. Her books include De-Medicalizing Misery, The Bitterest Pills: The Troubling Story of Antipsychotic Drugs, and The Myth of the Chemical Cure.

Her latest book is titled Chemically Imbalanced: The Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth. This book in many ways is a follow-up to her 2022 paper which looked at the serotonin story and concluded that there was no good evidence that a serotonergic deficiency was a primary cause of depression. It caused quite a furor within the media and in psychiatry.

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A full transcript of this interview is availabe here: https://www.madinamerica.com/2025/04/chemically-imbalanced-joanna-moncrieff-making-unmaking-serotonin-myth/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Madden America Podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.
0:14.4	Hello and welcome to this Madden America podcast. My name is Robert Whitaker, and I'm happy today to have the pleasure of speaking with Joanna Moncrief.
0:22.6	Now, I think most of Mad in America listeners and readers know Dr. Moncrief pretty well and know her work pretty well,
0:29.6	but I'd still like to give her a brief proper introduction.
0:32.6	Dr. Moncrief is a psychiatrist who works in the National Health Service.
0:36.6	I think you're a consultant to the National Health Service in the United Kingdom,
0:40.3	and she's professor of critical and social psychiatry at University College London.
0:44.3	In 1990, she co-founded what is known as the Critical Psychiatry Network,
0:49.3	which today I think has about 400 psychiatrists who are members,
0:52.3	about two-thirds of whom are in the United Kingdom.
0:55.7	From my perspective, the critical psychiatry network has been at the forefront of making a
1:01.9	broad critique of the disease model of care. And without this network, I don't think that
1:07.5	critique would be anywhere near as prominent or as sophisticated as it is today.
1:13.0	Dr. Moncrief is a prolific researcher and writer. Her books include de-medicalizing misery,
1:18.9	the bitterest pills, the troubling story of antipsychotics, the myth of the chemical cure,
1:24.3	and her latest book is titled Chemically Imbalance, The Making and Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth.
1:30.8	Now, this book in many ways is a follow-up to her 2022 paper, which looked at the serotonin story and concluded that there was no good evidence that assertionergic deficiency was a primary cause of depression, and I have to say,
1:44.9	it caused quite the furor within the media and the response from psychiatry.
1:51.5	So, Joanna, it's such a pleasure to have you here, and thanks for being here.
1:55.4	Thank you for having me, Bob.
1:56.8	So what I'd like to do, we will be talking about your book, but I like, and I know our listeners would like to know, basically the path that you took to become a critical psychiatrist.
2:06.8	And I believe you were in medical school in the late 1980s.
	...

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