People are misled into believing that antidepressants are more effective than they really are because drug companies publish successful studies, but do not publish unsuccessful studies according to Dr. Irving Kirsch from Harvard University who was interviewed on the television show "60 MInutes" on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (4-miutes into the video).

Dr. Kirsch is a psychologist from Harvard University who has been studying placebos for 36 years, who says that for mild to moderate depression, antidepressants are no better than placebo.

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"The difference between drug [antidepressants] and placebo is very, very small, and in half the studies, [the difference] is nonexistent" said Dr. Irving Kirsch, a psychologist from Harvard University who has been studying placebos for 36 years, in an interview on the television show "60 MInutes" on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (5-minutes into the video). Read the entire article | Email this article

"[Walter Brown, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Brown University's School of Medicine] says that [people with mild depression] are getting virtually no benefit from the chemical in [antidepressants]," noted 60-Minutes correspondent, Lesley Stahl, in an interview she did on "60 MInutes" on Sunday, February 19, 2012 (8-minutes into the video).

Dr. Brown has coauthored two studies of antidepressants that largely corroborate Dr. Irving Kirsch's findings, that antidepressants are not much more effective than placebo for people with mild to moderate depression.

"The number of antidepressant prescriptions over the last decade has increase, and most troublesome, the biggest increase is in those who are mildly depressed who are the one's who are least likely to benefit from them," Dr. Brown noted (7.5-minutes into the video). Read the entire article | Email this article