The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth Paperback – March 8, 2011
Author: Visit Amazon's Irving Kirsch Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0465022006 | Format: PDF, EPUB
The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth – March 8, 2011
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. When he began a new research project on antidepressants and placebos (a "meta-analysis" of a large number of published studies), practicing psychotherapist and research psychologist Kirsch (How Expectancies Shape Experience) was surprised to uncover evidence that inadequate supervision by the FDA had allowed pharmaceutical companies to cherry-pick test results for publication and submission to the feds, suppressing unwanted outcomes; further, apparent evidence of active drugs' effectiveness when compared to placebos could often be attributed to patients correctly guessing which group they were in based on the side effects (or the lack thereof) they had come to expect in conjunction with anti-depressants. When his results were published in early 2008, Kirsch was surprised to find himself and his research the subject of front page newspaper stories, TV and radio coverage, and a vigorous debate in the medical community that continues to this day. Writing with a broad audience in mind, Kirsch expands on this important topic in a lively style with clear, cogent explanations of the science involved, and many examples of the differences between solid and flawed research. The result is a fascinating book with broad implications for science policy.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Recent surveys show almost 30 million Americans taking Prozac, Paxil, and their ilk at a cost of more than $10 billion annually. With decades of persuasive clinical trials and testimonials from patients and physicians attesting to it, such antidepressants’ overall effectiveness has long been deemed indisputable by psychiatrists. Yet according to psychologist Kirsch’s damning expose of pharmaceutical industry greed, that efficacy is entirely due to the placebo effect. Kirsch makes the bulk of his case by reviewing data from dozens of clinical trials dating back to the 1960s, including ones kept hidden by drug companies, which demonstrate that antidepressants work no better than pills that mimic antidepressants’ side effects. Kirsch also dismantles drug company assertions that newer antidepressants, such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors, work by balancing faulty brain chemistry. His contentions have already stirred controversy, including the predictable criticism from Big Pharma. Yet his work is an overdue wake-up call to the psychological professions to begin treating depression with more compassionate methods than expensive pill-popping. --Carl Hays
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Books with free ebook downloads available The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth – March 8, 2011
- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Basic Books; First Trade Paper Edition edition (March 8, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0465022006
- ISBN-13: 978-0465022007
- Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
- Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #167,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #49 in Books > Medical Books > Psychology > Psychopharmacology
- #57 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Psychopharmacology
I have conflicts of interest to declare. I'm a physician but I also write. I share a publisher (Random House UK) with Irving Kirsch and have written for them about the damage done by doctors who don't subject their ideas to reliable tests. Because of this I was asked if I'd provide a recommendation to go on the dust jacket of Kirsch's book. I was familiar with his work, having read his medical journal articles analysing the evidence behind antidepressant tablets. On that basis I sat down to his book expecting that I'd probably be able to say something nice about it. I thought it'd most likely amount to saying that Kirsch's research is important and interesting and should be mandatory for doctors involved with antidepressant prescriptions.
This book, though, isn't worthy & technical - it's fascinating. It's a remarkably readable account of how we got carried away with an idea about the brain that isn't true. You don't need to have an interest in depression and you don't have to be a medic; this is a thoughtful look at how bright & well-meaning people get enchanted with an idea & go on to fool themselves and everyone else. It isn't a doctor-bashing book, nor one that pushes the author's own pet therapy. Instead it gives a lovely insight into the way science works, and the way it can sometimes gets done so badly that it doesn't work at all. Kirsch argues antidepressant tablets are based on a false pharmacological model of the brain, and that the balance of evidence shows they don't work except as placebos. Even if you're not persuaded by Kirsch's thesis - and I think you should be - you'll find his ideas thought-provoking.
For most of human history, going to see a doctor was a bad move. We did more harm than good.
I've often felt that there should be an Anti-Nobel Prize for Medicine. This would be given not for discovering something new, but for discovering that something we believed deeply wasn't true. If there were such an award, Irving Kirsch would be up for it.
We have known some fundamentals about depression for decades: It is caused by a biochemical imbalance, the imbalance is in the serotonergic system, antidepressant drugs targeting this system somehow correct the problem, and they do so safely and with an excellent risk to benefit ratio. As the data have accumulated, however, the elegance and sense of these ideas have given way to confusion. In terms of Kuhn's concept of paradigm shifts, the evidence is tilting us uncomfortably from a belief in the origins, nature, and pharmacological treatment of clinical depression, toward a period of confusion where the older ideas collapse but have yet to be replaced by a newer model.
Few have done more elegant and powerful work in this area than Kirsch. As a psychologist specializing in depression, I have followed his articles closely since his work on this topic began coming out over ten years ago. As you read the book, you can begin to get a small chirping annoyance that takes a while to find its way into awareness. With all due respect to Kirsch: "This seems like good work, but it's not exactly rocket science. It's a bit obvious to go back and look at all the data to see what has actually been done, which of it has been published, and what it actually shows in terms of effectiveness. How is it that no one did this before?" You are led to two possibilities: Either people connected with the work see the problems and ignore them, or the quality of the science in this field is pretty low.
