All Posts by Jonathan Leo, Ph.D. / Jeffrey Lacasse, Ph.D.

The George Costanza Excuse for Medical Ghostwriting

Several months ago, two professors at the University of Pennsylvania were accused of ghostwriting. The university has now announced the results of their investigation, which is partially based on work by the great moral philosopher, George Constanza…
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March 2, 2012 | Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: , ,

A Pharmaceutical Company That Agrees With Irving Kirsch? Wellbutrin Advertised as 10% More Effective Than Placebo

Irving Kirsch (the psychologist who has argued that antidepressants offer a marginal advantage over placebos) has agreement from an unlikely source- advertisements from a pharmaceutical company, which agree completely…
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February 29, 2012 | Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: , , , , , , ,

The American Psychiatric Association’s Response to 60 Minutes: Where is the Science?

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has posted a response to the 60 minutes segment on Irving Kirsch and the placebo effect in antidepressant research. But is their response based on scientific data?
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February 24, 2012 | Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

60 Minutes, The SSRIs, and The Dirty Little Secret

Last night, 60 Minutes presented the work of Irving Kirsch, who has been researching the placebo effect in antidepressants for many years. We discuss.
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February 20, 2012 | Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: , , ,

Should Jilted Lovers Be Treated with Antidepressants?

It is refreshing that The New York Times in the space of four days has published two articles which take a critical view of the current mental health paradigm.  An article by Alan Sroufe called “Ritalin Gone Wrong” points out …
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January 31, 2012 | Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , ,

Revising the History of the Serotonin Theory of Depression?

Did scientists recently discover that the Serotonin Theory of Depression is false? Or has this been known for decades? We investigate.
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January 29, 2012 | Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , ,

Psychiatry’s Grand Confession

The psychiatric profession has finally come clean and confessed on a national media outlet that there is no evidence to support the Serotonin Theory of Depression. Today, on NPR’s Morning Edition there is a segment about the chemical imbalance theory, and …
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January 23, 2012 | Categorized in: Blogs | Tagged as: , , ,

Antipsychotics and the Scientific Method

In a recent article in the New Yorker, titled, The Truth Wears Off, science writer Jonah Lehrer discusses an intriguing problem in science. The problem is that scientific results which are confirmed at one point are sometimes overturned after further …
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January 7, 2011 | Categorized in: Blogs

Coffee Mugs or the Medical Literature: Why Do Doctors Make the Decisions They Do?

November 9, 2010 | Categorized in: Blogs

Keeping Tabs on the Serotonin Theory of Depression

In 2008, Philip Cowen published an essay in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences. His essay leads off with the provocative question, “Serotonin and Depression: Pathological mechanism or Marketing Myth?”  To be honest we are not exactly sure on what side of …
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October 6, 2010 | Categorized in: Blogs

Introducing Our Blog

Consider these findings: The antidepressant drugs, used to treat depression and many other mental disorders have limited effectiveness, they have significant side effects, and many people who take the drugs have a hard time withdrawing from them.  In addition, no …
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September 18, 2010 | Categorized in: Blogs