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| Antidepressant tablets. Photo: Jonathan Nourok/ Getty Images |
Psychiatric drugs do more harm than good, says expert
by Sarah Boseley, Health editor, The Guardian, 12 May 2015
by Sarah Boseley, Health editor, The Guardian, 12 May 2015
Peter Gøtzsche argues that most prescriptions could be stopped without causing harm, but other experts strongly disagree
Psychiatric drugs do more harm than good and the use of most antidepressants and dementia drugs could be virtually stopped without causing harm, an expert on clinical trials argues in a leading medical journal.
The views expressed in a British Medical Journal debate by Peter Gøtzsche, professor and director of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Denmark, are strongly opposed by many experts in mental health. However, others say the debate around the use of psychiatric drugs is important and acknowledge that there has been overuse of antipsychotics to quieten aggressive patients with dementia.