On a June 24^th interview on the Today Show with Matt Lauer, Tom Cruise made what some would consider some outrageous claims: psychiatry is a "pseudoscience," "there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance," and all antidepressants do is "mask the problem." See the transcript here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8343367

Then, in another Today Show interview on June 27^th, Lauer and Cruise were joined by Katie Couric and two psychiatrists, APA President Dr. Steven Sharfstein and Dr. Joseph Glenmullen. Glenmullen agreed with Cruise that chemical imbalances have never been proven to cause mental disorders. Sharfstein said, "that’s total nonsense." See the transcript here:

http://www.psychologydebunked.com/email0507_Jun27 Today Cruise transcript.htm

What many people didn’t hear, was that the same Dr. Sharfstein admitted in the July 11^th issue of PEOPLE magazine that there is no way to test for a chemical imbalance in someone’s brain. He conceded, "We do not have a clean-cut lab test." So the highest person in the psychiatry food chain, the APA President, believes chemical imbalances cause mental disorders in one interview, but says there’s no way to test for it in the next. How then can the APA President still believe in chemical balances? He must have a lot of faith.

The news media has ripped apart Tom Cruise for his stance, and the APA, AMA, and other large psychology industry organizations have risen up to defend their faith. We were, however, able to locate a few articles that sided with Cruise. One is this San Diego Union-Tribune article:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/navarrette/20050629-9999-lz1e29navaret.html.

Here is our response to that article:

http://www.psychologydebunked.com/email0507_SDUT Cruise response.htm

We also located other Cruise supporters who are doctors. Pediatric neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman, based in San Diego, has 35 years of medical experience, including the discovery of real neurological and genetic diseases. He wrote two extremely informative responses to the Cruise interviews (these are must-reads):

Baughman response to Today Show (good):

http://www.psychologydebunked.com/email0507_Baughman response Today Cruise.htm

Baughman response to Anderson Show (better):

http://www.psychologydebunked.com/email0507_Baughman response Anderson Cruise.htm

We discovered a psychiatrist, Nancy Mullan, who gives us some surprisingly medical advice on what post-partum depression really is: a medical condition that should be treated medically, not a mental condition treated with mind-altering drugs. Here is a snippet taken from a Yahoo! group: