Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Irving Kirsch

Quote by Irving Kirsch

“Our analyses of the FDA data showed relatively little difference between the effects of antidepressants and the effects of placebos. Indeed, the effects were so small that they did not qualify as clinically significant. The drug companies knew how small the effect of their medications were compared to placebos, and so did the FDA and other regulatory agencies. The companies found various ways to make the data seem more favorable to their products, and the FDA helped them keep their negative data secret. In fact, in some instances, the FDA urged the companies to keep negative data hidden, even when the companies wanted to reveal them. My colleagues and I hadn't really discovered anything new. We had merely revealed their 'dirty little secret'.”

Quote by Irving Kirsch

Work

The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Irving Kirsch
Irving Kirsch

Irving Kirsch is a renowned psychologist, born on March 7, 1943. He has conducted extensive research in the field of cognitive psychology, particularly on the effectiveness of psychotherapy. Professor Kirsch's work has had a profound impact on the field of psychotherapy. more

You May Also Like

“Quite ironically, the answer to ineffective philanthropy is more of it: the failure of philanthropy is its own success. The perceived necessity — even the indispensability — of a donor like the Gates Foundation grows in proportion to its own inability to achieve the unachievable: mitigating the very inequalities that its own presence might be inadvertently compounding.”

“Dr. Patrick F. Fagan wrote: “The indispensable building block upon which the fortunes of the economy depends [is] the married-parent household—especially the child-rich family that worships weekly. …Every marriage creates a new household, an independent economic unit that generates income, spends, saves, and invests.”