Michael P. Hengartner

Michael Pascal Hengartner is an academic psychologist at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences who has published on the subject of antidepressants and in other areas.^[1][2] In 2022, he published a book called Evidence-Biased Antidepressant Prescription: Overmedicalisation, Flawed Research, and Conflicts of Interest.^[2] He has also published with other notable researchers such as Joanna Moncrieff^[3][4] and Irving Kirsch.^[5][6]

Michael Pascal Hengartner MSc, PhD
Nationality	Swiss
Education	Master of Science (MSc): clinical psychology, psychopathology, and criminology (2009); Doctor of Philosophy (PhD): psychology (2013)[1]
Occupation(s)	Psychologist; Professor; Medical researcher
Years active	2010–present
Medical career
Profession	Professor; Psychologist; Researcher
Institutions	Section for Clinical Psychology and Health Psychology, ZHAW School of Applied Psychology
Research	Psychiatry; Psychology
Notable works	Evidence-biased Antidepressant Prescription Overmedicalisation, Flawed Research, and Conflicts of Interest (Hengartner, 2022)

Selected publications

Books

• Hengartner, Michael P. (2022). Evidence-Biased Antidepressant Prescription: Overmedicalisation, Flawed Research, and Conflicts of Interest. Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-82587-4. ISBN 978-3-030-82586-7.

Papers

• Hengartner, Michael P.; Plöderl, Martin (July 2018). "False Beliefs in Academic Psychiatry: The Case of Antidepressant Drugs" (PDF). Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. 20 (1): 6–16. doi:10.1891/1559-4343.20.1.6. eISSN 1938-9000. ISSN 1559-4343. S2CID 149608377.
• Hengartner MP, Plöderl M (2018). "Statistically Significant Antidepressant-Placebo Differences on Subjective Symptom-Rating Scales Do Not Prove That the Drugs Work: Effect Size and Method Bias Matter!" (PDF). Front Psychiatry. 9: 517. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00517. PMC 6199395. PMID 30386270.
• Hengartner MP, Jakobsen JC, Sørensen A, Plöderl M (2020). "Efficacy of new-generation antidepressants assessed with the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, the gold standard clinician rating scale: A meta-analysis of randomised placebo-controlled trials" (PDF). PLOS ONE. 15 (2): e0229381. Bibcode:2020PLoSO..1529381H. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0229381. PMC 7043778. PMID 32101579.
• Hengartner MP (2020). "How effective are antidepressants for depression over the long term? A critical review of relapse prevention trials and the issue of withdrawal confounding" (PDF). Ther Adv Psychopharmacol. 10: 2045125320921694. doi:10.1177/2045125320921694. PMC 7225779. PMID 32435449.
• Hengartner MP (April 2020). "Is there a genuine placebo effect in acute depression treatments? A reassessment of regression to the mean and spontaneous remission" (PDF). BMJ Evid Based Med. 25 (2): 46–48. doi:10.1136/bmjebm-2019-111161. PMID 30975717.
• Hengartner MP, Plöderl M (April 2022). "Estimates of the minimal important difference to evaluate the clinical significance of antidepressants in the acute treatment of moderate-to-severe depression" (PDF). BMJ Evid Based Med. 27 (2): 69–73. doi:10.1136/bmjebm-2020-111600. PMID 33593736. S2CID 231939760.
• Moncrieff J, Cooper RE, Stockmann T, Amendola S, Hengartner MP, Horowitz MA (July 2022). "The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence" (PDF). Mol Psychiatry. 28 (8): 3243–3256. doi:10.1038/s41380-022-01661-0. PMC 10618090. PMID 35854107. S2CID 250646781.