Group therapy time

[Lamplighter]

Probably not worth a new thread... but this is the sickest headline I've see in a long time.

More than one in 10 Americans use antidepressants
Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:55pm EDT
(Reuters) -

More than one in 10 Americans over the age of 12 takes an antidepressant,
a class of drugs that has become wildly popular in the past several decades,
U.S. government researchers said Wednesday.

Antidepressants were the third-most common drug used by Americans
of all ages between 2005 and 2008 and they were the most common drug
among people aged 18 to 44, according to an analysis by the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

The team analyzed data on more than 12,000 Americans who took part
in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys between 2005 and 2008.
<snip>

I'm appalled that the US could be this far into the pill culture.
It is indeed time for Group Therapy, and time for medical schools
and the AMA and the government to get on top of this.

TV ads and physicians wanting to please their patients have made it too easy.
It is the physicians responsibility to diagnose and proscribe accurately,
There is no way that 10% of the population actually suffers from depression.
As a first step, free speech be damned... get the Rx ads off TV
.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

More than one in 10 Americans use antidepressants

I heard in a piece that 1 in 25 American kids from 12 to 17 are on antidepressants.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

...There is no way that 10% of the population actually suffers from depression...

Ten percent taking antidepression meds means that ten percent of the population has been diagnosed as depressed.

The actual number of people suffering from depression will be much higher.

[Lamplighter]

or lower...

I admit to my belief that unless it is a true "clinical depression",
there would be alternatives to Rx medications.

The world got along without them for quite a long time.
Unfortunately, for those with true clinical depression,
the options were scarce and awful.

My bias is against the pervasive TV ads for these meds,
and physicians who simply write the script and collect their fee.
In part this is based on the article stating:

Patients who take the drugs often get them from their regular doctor
rather than a so-called mental health professional.