Science Media Centre: A lesson in Spellcasting

From the blog-site of Auntie Psychiatry:

“There is a very, very long background story to this cartoon. I will try my best to be brief, but please do bear with me. First of all, let me translate the Latin Spell.

ARGUMENTUM AD VERECUNDIAM: Argument from authority (or appeal to authority) – where something is purported to be true, simply because a knowledgeable and well-reputed person has said it.

Now the story.

In July 2017, I happened across this article on the Newsweek Website: “BBC, SSRIS AND ‘A PRESCRIPTION FOR MURDER’: EXPERTS SLAM PANORAMA DOCUMENTARY ON ANTIDEPRESSANTS

It contains this quote from Carmine Pariante, Professor of Biological Psychiatry, King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience:

“we know very well that every time an alarm reduces the rates of prescription for antidepressants, suicide rates increase, including in adolescent and young adults.”

A quick Google search traced the exact quote back to a press release from the Science Media Centre (SMC):

expert comments on whether antidepressants can lead people to become a murderer, as is being reported in advance of the upcoming Panorama programme ‘A Prescription for Murder?’”

So, the Newsweek journalist had sourced Pariante’s quote from the SMC website.

I’d heard a lot about this UK based Registered Charity, none of it good, but I wanted to know more. A little rooting around their website put me in the picture. …”

Read more here.

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