Today, Rhonda and I interview one of our heroes, Dr. Irving
Kirsch, who is a giant in depression research and a fun,
down-to-earth human being at the same time!
Dr. Kirsch is Associate Director of the Program in Placebo
Studies and the Therapeutic Relationship, and a lecturer on
medicine at the Harvard Medical School (Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center). He is also Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the
University of Hull (UK) and the University of Connecticut
(USA).
Dr. Kirsch has published 10 books, more than 250 scientific
journal articles and 40 book chapters on placebo effects,
antidepressant medication, hypnosis, and suggestion. He originated
the concept of response expectancy. This is the expectation that
people have that a given treatment or intervention will be
helpful.
Kirsch’s 2002 meta-analysis on the efficacy of antidepressants
influenced official guidelines for the treatment of depression in
the United Kingdom. His 2008 meta-analysis was covered extensively
in the international media and listed by the British Psychological
Society as one of the “10 most controversial psychology studies
ever published.”
His book, The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the
Antidepressant Myth, has been published in English, French,
Italian, Japanese, Turkish, and Polish, and was shortlisted for the
prestigious “Mind Book of the Year” award. It was also the topic of
a 60 Minutes segment on CBS and a 5-page cover story in
Newsweek.
In 2015, the University of Basel (Switzerland) awarded Irving
Kirsch an Honorary Doctorate in Psychology. In 2019, the Society
for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis honored him with their
“Living Human Treasure Award.”
In today’s podcast, we cover a wide range of topics, including
a patient-level reanalysis of all of the data on the effects of
antidepressant medications versus placebos submitted to the FDA.
This analysis included more than 70,000 depressed individuals and
indicated something troubling and surprising. The difference in
improvement between individuals treated with antidepressants and
individuals receiving antidepressant medications was only 1.8
points on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. This test can
range from 0 to 50, and a difference of 1.8 points is not
clinically significant.
In addition, the beneficial antidepressant effects observed in
both the placebo and “antidepressant” groups are large, with
reductions of around 10 points or so on the Hamilton Scale.
These were the shocking discoveries that led to his popular
book, The Emperor’s New Drugs (LINK), and to his
appearance on the Sunday evening 60 Minutes TV show.
In addition, Dr. Kirsch agreed that tiny difference between the
“effects” of antidepressants vs placebos could be the result of
problems in the experimental design used by drug companies. Because
they give patients in the placebo groups pills with inactive
ingredients, there are no side effects in the placebo groups.
This makes it fairly easy for individuals to guess what group
they were assigned to—the “real” antidepressant group or the
placebo group. This might account for the differences in the
groups, since many individuals in the medication groups may think,
“Hey, I’m getting some side effects. I must be in the
antidepressant group. That’s terrific!”
This thought would be expected to trigger some mood elevation,
but it’s the thought, and not the pill, that causes this.
In contrast, some individual in the placebo groups may have the
thought, “Hey, I’m not getting any of the side effects they
described. I must be in the placebo group!”
And this thought may trigger disappointment, and a worsening of
depression. This would contribute to differences between the drug
and placebo groups in drug company outcome studies with new
chemicals that they hope to get approved as “antidepressants.”
This problem could easily be corrected by the use of active
placebos, like atropine, which produces dry mouth, a side effect of
many antidepressants and has been used as an active placebo in a
small number of trials. Most of the studies using active placebos
have failed to show any significant effect of the antidepressant
over the active placebo.
Drug companies have been reluctant to implement this change in
their research designs, perhaps due to the fear that it will
“erase” the tiny differences that they have been reporting. This
would be of potential concern since billions of dollars are at
stake if the FDA gives you permission to call your new chemical an
“antidepressant.”
We also discussed Dr. Kirsch’s unlikely journey to Harvard.
When he was in England, planning to return to the United States, he
asked a colleague at Harvard if it would be possible for him to get
a library card so he’d have access to articles in research
journals.
His colleague told him that it was difficult to obtain a
library card for people not affiliated with Harvard. However, they
were willing to offer him a position as Instructor on Medicine,
given that he was the Associate Director of the Program in
Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Relationship, which was hosted
at one of the Harvard teaching hospitals.
That’s a wow! But certainly deserved, and a most fortunate
affiliation with unanticipated and highly positive consequences
that have led to many important discoveries on how the placebo
effect actually works. The placebo effect is not a bad thing, and
has been one of the doctor’s best “medicines” for hundreds if not
thousands of years.
On the podcast, we also discussed the confusion—for patients,
doctors, and researchers alike—caused by the placebo effect. For
example, many people who receive antidepressants do improve, and
some recover completely. They will SWEAR by antidepressants, and
may feel hurt or disappointed by the results of Dr. Kirsch’s
research.
But in fact, there is no discernable difference between the
effects of placebos and so-called “real” effects. And one of the
downsides of the confusion about placebos is that people who take
antidepressants and improve have improved because of changes in
their thinking, and not from the antidepressant. But they wrongly
give credit to the pills they took, whereas they deserve the real
credit for overcoming their feelings of depression.
We discussed many other topics, including pushback he has
received from the psychiatric community and some in the general
public as well who have not taken kindly to his findings. I, too,
have experienced that when I have summarized the data in the Food
and Drug Administration, and have had to be very careful in how I
present this information, because none of us want to discourage
anyone who is depressed.
We have also invited Dr. Kirsch to consult with us on the
research design we use in our beta testing of the Feeling Good App,
and have developed tests of “expectations” (the so-called placebo
effect) that we will use in our latest beta test as well.
We want to “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk” and
find out how much the improvement we see in beta testers might be
due to a placebo, or “mega-placebo” effect.
Rhonda and I were honored and thrilled to have this chance to
interview Dr. Irving Kirsch, a friend and research giant for
sure!
Thanks so much for listening to today’s podcast!
Irving, Rhonda, and David
About the Podcast
This podcast features David D. Burns MD, author of "Feeling Good, The New Mood Therapy," describing powerful new techniques to overcome depression and anxiety and develop greater joy and self-esteem. For therapists and the general public alike!
