Further evidence that antidepressants simply don’t work (or, at least, don’t work the way the pharmaceutical companies insist they should) comes with the long overdue publication of Professor Irving Kirsch’s aptly named book, The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth (The Bodley Head).
Professor Kirsch, now at the University of Hull, has published several papers before, including one extensive study in 2002, based on data extracted from the pharmaceutical industry by means of the Freedom of Information Act. This clearly demonstrated that all antidepressants, including the popular SSRIs, had no clinically significant benefit over placebo.
Since the Medical NLP course I attended last year, I have been applying the techniques in virtually all my consultations. As you can imagine, 10 minutes gives precious little time, so often I do double appointments for 20 minutes or even 30 minutes.
Some time ago, I had a very interesting case with a mother who brought in her six-year-old son, saying he would not sleep and that he kept the household up all nigh. She was convinced he had ADHD, but it was quickly obvious that he didn't. I decided to try MNLP.
Some unexpected, but extremely welcome, support for our assertion in Magic in Practice that the medical establishmen, the pharmaceutical industry, and the patients they serve are all conspiring to medicalise much of everyday life comes from the journal, Science and Medicine.
A study by Essex University's Professor Joan Busfield points out that prescriptions, including those for invented or exaggerated conditions, such as "restless legs", "attention deficit hyperactivity disorder", and "sexual dysfunction" have more than doubled in the past 10 years, costing the Health Service £22-million a day.
