Experience is a biochemical intervention: Reconceptualizing the “biologically based mental illness”

Empirical evidence challenges the discriminant validity of the “biologically based mental illness” (BBMI) construct. Data indicate that interventions such as psychotherapy, placebo, and medication yield similar changes in brain function when effective. Drug and brain imaging studies show that psychological and biochemical phenomena can be manipulated reciprocally. Data suggest that mental disorders are biologically expressed, not epiphenomenal to a biological process. Suggestions are given for further research and alternative conceptualizations that may lead to changes in healthcare policy.