Evidence-biased Antidepressant Prescription: Overmedicalisation, Flawed Research, and Conflicts of Interest...

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Michael P. Hengartner

Evidence-biased Antidepressant Prescription

Overmedicalisation, Flawed Research, and Conflicts of Interest

Michael P. Hengartner

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English

Springer Nature Switzerland AG
11 December 2022

Abnormal psychology; Medical sociology; Psychiatry; Clinical psychology; Medical anthropology

This book addresses the over-prescribing of antidepressants in people with mostly mild and subthreshold depression. It outlines the steep increase in antidepressant prescription and critically examines the current scientific evidence on the efficacy and safety of antidepressants in depression. The book is not only concerned with the conflicting views as to whether antidepressants are useful or ineffective in various forms of depression, but also aims at detailing how flaws in the conduct and reporting of antidepressant trials have led to an overestimation of benefits and underestimation of harms. The transformation of the diagnostic concept of depression from a rare but serious disorder to an over-inclusive, highly prevalent but predominantly mild and self-limiting disorder is central to the books argument. It maintains that biological reductionism in psychiatry and pharmaceutical marketing reframed depression as a brain disorder, corroboratingthe overemphasis on drug treatment in both research and practice. Finally, the author goes on to explore how pharmaceutical companies have distorted the scientific literature on the efficacy and safety of antidepressants and how patient advocacy groups, leading academics, and medical organisations with pervasive financial ties to the industry helped to promote systematically biased benefit-harm evaluations, affecting public attitudes towards antidepressants as well as medical education, training, and practice.

By: Michael P. Hengartner
Imprint: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Country of Publication: Switzerland
Edition: 2022 ed.
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 148mm,
Weight: 476g
ISBN: 9783030825898
ISBN 10: 3030825892
Pages: 354
Publication Date: 11 December 2022
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

1. Introduction: How did I get here?.- 2. Antidepressants in clinical practice.- 3. Medico-cultural context.- 4. Flaws in antidepressant research.- 5. Conflicts of interest in psychiatry.- 6. Solutions for reform.

Michael P. Hengartner is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and four book chapters. He was an expert evaluator for the European Research Council and the World Health Organization and currently is a member of the Swiss School of Public Health, the German Society for Social Psychiatry, and the European Public Health Association.