Who Are the Real Purveyors of Medical Misinformation? One of the most troubling things about psychiatry is how speculative explanations for drug harms become established facts through sheer repetition. Take the claim that SSRIs can increase suicidality because they restore a depressed person’s energy before improving their mood, supposedly giving them the motivation to act on existing suicidal thoughts. This is routinely presented as though it’s an established scientific explanation. It isn’t. It’s a longstanding hypothesis for which convincing empirical evidence is lacking. A 2009 review in Psychiatric Services examined this very theory and found no consistent evidence supporting it. Yet rather than acknowledging that these drugs can themselves produce adverse psychological reactions, including agitation and akathisia, we’re offered a reassuring story about patients getting better. It’s a striking example of how a superficially plausible sounding hypothesis can become received wisdom when it conveniently distracts from uncomfortable truths about drug harm. Just because something is repeated as fact by someone in a white coat doesn’t make it any more true than any other forms of misinformation we hear online. And when we see it we should call it out.