Book description
Everyone knows that antidepressant drugs are miracles of modern
medicine. Professor Irving Kirsch knew this as well as anyone. But,
as he discovered during his research, there is a problem with what
everyone knows about antidepressant drugs. It isn't true.
How did antidepressant drugs gain their reputation as a magic bullet
for depression? And why has it taken so long for the story to become
public? Answering these questions takes us to the point where the
lines between clinical research and marketing disappear altogether.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, Kirsch accessed clinical
trials that were withheld, by drug companies, from the public and from
the doctors who prescribe antidepressants. What he found, and what he
documents here, promises to bring revolutionary change to the way our
society perceives, and consumes, antidepressants.
The Emperor's New Drugs exposes what we have failed to see
before: depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance in the
brain; antidepressants are significantly more dangerous than other
forms of treatment and are only marginally more effective than
placebos; and, there are other ways to combat depression, treatments
that don't only include the empty promise of the antidepressant prescription.
This is not a book about alternative medicine and its outlandish
claims. This is a book about fantasy and wishful thinking in the
heart of clinical medicine, about the seductions of myth, and the
final stubbornness of facts.
Irving Kirsch is a lecturer in medicine at the Harvard Medical School
and a professor of psychology at Plymouth University, as well as
professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Hull, and the
University of Connecticut. He has published eight books and numerous
scientific articles on placebo effects, antidepressant medication,
hypnosis, and suggestion. His work has appeared in
Science, Science
News, New Scientist, New York Times, Newsweek
, and
BBC Focus
and many other leading magazines, newspapers, and television
documentaries.
