Health, Longevity & Biohacking
Pharmaceutical Industry Deliberately Spread Chemical Imbalance Theory to Sell SSRIs
Triggernometry
The Truth About Depression - Dr Joanna Moncrieff
What was said
"In the 1990s, the pharmaceutical industry released their new range of antidepressant drugs. They wanted to persuade people to take these drugs rather than the old benzodiazepines. To distinguish these new antidepressants from the old benzodiazepines, they put out this idea basically that depression is caused by a medical disorder that is caused by an abnormality in the brain, specifically a deficiency of serotonin, which their new drugs happen to be able to put right."
Moncrieff revealed that Big Pharma deliberately promoted the chemical imbalance theory in the 1990s purely for profit, to differentiate SSRIs from benzodiazepines which had a bad reputation for dependency. The theory existed since the 1960s but was not widely accepted until pharmaceutical companies ran thorough promotional campaigns to sell more drugs, fundamentally reshaping public understanding of depression for commercial gain.
Verification status
Attributed speaker claim
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Source and context
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- Programme
- Triggernometry
- Episode
- The Truth About Depression - Dr Joanna Moncrieff
- Clip time
- 2:09
- Original source
- Watch the source segment →
From this episode
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