Irving Kirsch opens a window on antidepressant medications

Abstract

When it comes to antidepressant medications–popular, backbone drugs of modern psychiatry–even learned scholars and savvy clinicians find it difficult to separate honest, rigorous research from that which thrives on hidden agendas and ulterior motives. Fortunately, a mounting corpus of data-based studies, mostly meta-analyses, casts new and critical light on the clinical efficacy, side effects, and therapeutic outcomes of antidepressants. Spearheading these efforts over the past few decades, Irving Kirsch and colleagues have challenged the hegemonic view of antidepressants as an effective therapeutic intervention. Notably, Kirsch illuminates the small difference between antidepressants and placebos in mitigating depression—a difference that may be statistically significant yet fails to reach clinical significance. This piece sketches the important contributions Kirsch has made to the scientific understanding of antidepressant medications.