"We have known for a long time that antidepressants are not very different from a placebo."
Joanna Moncrieff is Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry at University College London and a consultant psychiatrist with the NHS. She challenges the common view that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance fixed by medication. In 2022, she led a key study questioning the serotonin theory that underpins much psychiatric treatment.
Moncrieff argues that antidepressants provide only limited benefits, mostly due to placebo effects, while ignoring the complex social and psychological causes of mental illness. Through her books—The Myth of the Chemical Cure, The Bitterest Pill, and Chemically Imbalanced—she exposes the scientific flaws and commercial forces shaping psychiatric care. Her work calls for a more critical, holistic approach to mental health beyond drug treatments.
"[Moncrieff] explains both the scientific flaws and the deliberate manipulations underlying much of today's psychiatric ideology and treatment." — Gabor Maté
