Prominent child psychiatrist Stanley Kutcher recently made headlines in Canada with his study that found two “widely marketed” suicide-prevention strategies apparently don’t work. On her blog, Patricia Ivan critically evaluates Kutcher’s analytical techniques, and also wonders if the man might have an axe to grind against non-drug psychotherapeutic approaches. Kutcher, she writes, co-authored one of the most infamously corrupt and misleading antidepressant studies of all time.
“But it is important to note that ‘evidence-based’ evaluations are primarily bureaucratic cost-cutting tools,” writes Ivan. “They can be directed against enemies and skewed to help friends. Minimal critical thinking dictates that we ask whether evidenced-based standards are being applied evenly.”
After reviewing Kutcher’s process for criticizing the two suicide prevention approaches, Ivan discusses Kutcher’s own prevention programs (one of which was previously reported on by Mad in America), and his involvement in the enormously influential Study 329. That was a study which reported Paxil to be safe and effective for children when, according to a later US Department of Justice investigation, the data had actually showed the opposite.
Stanley Kutcher’s Science (Patricia Ivan — Psychotherapy, April 13, 2015)
