The Medicated Americans: Antidepressant Prescriptions on the Rise

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-medicated-americans

Summary

There are around thirty available drugs used as antidepressants. With such a large variety of drugs to treat depression, it would be expected that the number of depressed Americans would be lower. But these drugs seem to be muddling the distinction between disease and disorder instead of treating serious health problems.
Instead of going to a psychiatrist for the treatment of mental problems, Americans are turning to these antidepressant drugs. In a study by the New England Research Institute, forty-three percent of those who were prescribed antidepressants had no psychiatric diagnosis and did not have any additional treatment beyond the drug prescribed. Antidepressants are prescribed twice as much to women as to men and one out of three doctor's visits by women concerned antidepressants.
Family doctors now commonly prescribe antidepressant drugs, instead of a psychiatrist. Often Americans, about one fifth, ask their doctor for a drug after seeing an advertisement for it and the doctor will almost always comply with the request. A study at the University of California in 2006 showed that half of the doctors did not indicate the dosage amount and two thirds of doctors did not talk to their patient about how long to take the medication or about the adverse side effects. The most serious adverse effect of antidepressants is the risk of suicidal behavior.
Americans today don't even need to go to a doctor to get antidepressants. Antidepressants are available online, all that is needed is a credit card. Antidepressants only encourage a distance from doctors. Only twenty percent of patients who take antidepressant drugs have any kind of follow-up appointment to monitor the medication and three quarters of adults and half of children do not see a doctor about their mental health after taking antidepressants for three months.
So while the rate of pharmacological treatment for depression doubled between 1987 and 1997, the number of psychotherapy visits for depression decreased. Americans rely more and more on antidepressants and less and less on psychologists. Only three percent of the population sees a psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker for therapy.
Antidepressant SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) were first approved as treatment for clinical depression, but over the years more and more uses have been found for these drugs. They cover everything from obsessive-compulsive disorder to eating disorders to paraphilias. Now the drugs are prescribed for uses that have not been approved by the FDA. This is legal because it is supposed to give doctors the freedom to prescribe drugs that best suit their patients needs. But the major issue is the fact that these unapproved uses have little or no scientific support.
The most serious issue surrounding antidepressants today is the fact that these drugs have blurred the line between major depression and simply "feeling down". Depression was considered a rare disease usually associated with elderly women only a few years ago. Depression is now the overwhelming mental health diagnosis of our time and the mean age for the start of depression is fourteen years old. Real depression is very serious and the only treatments for it are hospitalization, supervision, rest, quiet, sedatives, sleep medications, and an appropriate level of antidepressants and electroshock therapy. The depression that is treated today is not the serious depression that needs antidepressants. In fact a study at New York University showed that one in four people who appears depressed and is treated for depression is dealing with the aftermath of a recent emotional blow. With all these people who are simply "feeling down", getting treatment for depression for those who have real severe and persistent mental illnesses are getting no care whatsoever.
As Americans, we are now treating "disorders", which have little meaning and can apply to just about everything. Everyone can have a "disorder" while only some have diseases. Diseases are painful, scary, often chronic and sometimes lethal. Instead of turning life problems into "disorders" we should treat them as life problems.

Response

I think it's ridiculous that we are treating people who have just been through something emotionally trying as depressed when they're really just "feeling down". America has obviously come to rely on medication far too much. I found it really disturbing that the doctors were so eager to prescribe whatever their patient suggested and that they didn't give their patient sufficient information about the drug they were prescribing. Making everything we go through into some sort of "disorder" distracts from those serious conditions that need medical attention. I think it's also very saddening that Americans are using medication instead of therapy and that we are starting medication at such a young age, giving drugs to fourteen year old children who have been diagnosed with depression.