How Irving Kirsch Got It Wrong About Antidepressants Versus Sham Acupuncture, Yoga, and Exercise
A radical anti-psychiatry group urges depressed persons to avoid antidepressants. The group relies more on the flawed work of Irving Kirsch than their own train wreck systematic umbrella review.
Trust Our Authority, We Did a Systematic Umbrella Review [HarshLight from San Jose, CA, USA, Wikimedia Commons]
The radical antipsychiatry group, Critical Psychiatry Network launched its most well-resourced, best organized, and what could be its most successful campaign ever to discourage people with mental health problems from taking medications or consulting evidence-based mental health professionals.
The campaign is organized around the themes that the serotonin theory of depression has been refuted and the chemical imbalance theory of depression never had any validity. “Chemical imbalance” is the invention of Big Pharma as a tool for primary care physicians to encourage patients to accept a prescription for meds.
As a card-carrying skeptic, why should I be surprised that an antipsychiatry group is saying this? Or that their noisy followers are ecstatic, even if they have no idea what an umbrella systematic review, except may be you should not rely on it to stay dry in the rain?