And you might benefit from reading books, journals, and papers on psychopharmacology or acquiring credentials to attend one of the annual meetings of the Society for Neurosciences. Exploring the serious scholarly literature on these issues would show you that indeed the neural/chemical pathways implicated in the etiology of schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar disorder are well characterized. And plenty of assays have been done of normal brains. The particular drugs and dosages used to treat these ailments are also widely and successfully used. I don't know who the "numerous people" are whom you've asked about this, but the research does exist. Whether or not you're willing to go to the National Library of Medicine and dig it out is another question.
I'm not disputing that outside influences--a horrible upbringing, abuse, neglect, bad training, severe trauma, etc.--can cause behaviors that are unacceptable. What I'm saying is that whether the origin of the illness was outside of the patient or was internal (like the genetic flaw that predisposes to schizophrenia or depression), the result is a change in brain chemistry which can actually be seen in PET scans.
I'm not in any way disputing what you're saying about this child and the abuse she clearly suffered. I agree that drugs are far too often prescribed for children who just need good parenting. I'm not even addressing this case in particular. I'm just saying that many major mental illnesses, like schizophrenia, can and should be treated with medications as well as therapy.
You mean like this ?
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/553844
And the conclusion ?
Conclusion: Given variable results on dopamine transporter levels in ADHD, the authors postulate that differences in DAT levels are unlikely to be the primary abnormality in ADHD and speculate that lower-than-normal DA release further characterizes individuals with ADHD. However, the finding of a positive correlation between DAT and inattention symptoms support the mechanism of action of stimulant medications.
Gee, I see the word “correlation” here associated with self-reported “inattention” symptoms. I don’t see any references to “normal”, other than those who self-reported as “normal”.
Again, it’s a behavioral diagnosis with researchers trying to find the science. I can’t find a single piece of research that says in essence “if DA levels are such, then a dosage y of drug x is indicated”.
The research you do find for ADHD ?
http://www.playattention.com/attention-deficit/articles/drug-updates-adhd-drug-methylphenidate-linked-to-chromosomal-changes/
“It was pretty surprising that all of the children taking methylphenidate showed an increase in chromosome abnormalities in a relatively short period of time,” El-Zein said.
Research for epilepsy ?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=12651078&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus
This is great reporting on the potential conflicts of interest, but there isn’t a single word in the article explaining that epilepsy drugs are ones for which there is a narrow “therapeutic window” between the level needed for efficacy and the level that causes debilitating side effects. Epilepsy drugs are among the few drugs for which doctors test blood levels and titrate doses carefully. Furthermore, some epilepsy drugs such as phenytoin have zero-order kinetics, meaning that the body gets rid of the drug at a constant rate that is independent of the level of the drug in the body, making it very hard to maintain a therapeutic drug level. For these reasons it matters a lot whether the patient gets a particular dose of the drug, and 10% variations that are negligible with other drugs can be hugely important in treatment of epilepsy.
I ask again - show me a specific study that identifies “normal” in terms of specific ratios and levels of brain chemicals. What we see in the literature is unspecified “lower” or “higher” this or that, but there is no definitive science.