The million women study: a critique
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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Design and Implementation of an fMRI Study Examining Thought Suppression in Young Women with, and At-risk, for Depression
Published on: May 19, 2015
Malcolm Whitehead1, Richard Farmer
1King's College Hospital NHS Trust, Denmark Hill, London SE5 9RS, UK. whitehead@btconnect.com
Abstract:
The regulatory authority in the UK, the Committee on Safety of Medicines, issued advice to health professionals on the day the results of the Million Women Study (MWS) were published. This course of action was undertaken before review of the study by the international medical and scientific community. We have reviewed the methodology of the MWS. It is our belief that the flaws in the design render the results largely uninterpretable because built in biases have affected risk estimates.
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