The $19 Billion Dollar Lie
From Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast by Dr. Eric Berg
April 29, 2026 · 9 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the misleading information surrounding antidepressants and their effectiveness, highlighting the risks and side effects associated with their use.
Over 30 million Americans have been told a 19 billion dollar lie. Find out what doctors don’t tell you about SSRI side effects, antidepressant effectiveness, and antidepressant risks that affect more people than you think. 0:00 Introduction: The 19 billion dollar lie 1:12 Irving Kirsch and medical research bias 2:09 Hamilton Depression Scale 2:59 Placebo vs. drug study for antidepressant effectiveness 4:16 Antidepressant side effects 4:33 Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction and emotional blunting 5:49 Antidepressants and the placebo effect explained 7:38 Natural antidepressants Download Dr. Berg's Free Daily Health Routine: https://drbrg.co/45qtO07 Antidepressant effectiveness may be overstated. Irving Kirsch examined clinical trials on antidepressants and found that around 78% of them were unpublished, rewritten, or contained inflated results. The “gold standard” for measuring depression is the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), which relies on subjective reporting and was not originally created to diagnose depression. In placebo-controlled trials, antidepressants did not significantly improve depression more than a sugar pill. A good night’s sleep can improve the symptoms of…
People in this episode
Host: Dr. Eric Berg
Topics covered
- SSRI side effects
- antidepressant effectiveness
- medical research bias
- placebo effect
- natural antidepressants
Keywords
- antidepressants
- SSRI
- side effects
- placebo
- depression
- Irving Kirsch
- Hamilton Depression Scale
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Hamilton Depression Scale
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