Research published January 25, 2011 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (“Antidepressant Use in the Absence of Common Mental Disorders in the General Population”) concludes that “antidepressant use among individuals without psychiatric diagnoses is common in the United States,” and these drugs are more likely to have been prescribed by family doctors than by psychiatrists.
Reuters picked up the story and said that “more than a quarter of people in the United States who take antidepressants have never been diagnosed with any of the conditions the drugs are typically used to treat.”
At $10 billion per year, the sale of antidepressants is a major contributor to the high cost of health care insurance. As these drugs often have devastating side effects, they are calculated to create patients-for-life; more and more health care is needed to combat these side effects, while the original symptoms for which they may have been prescribed go undiagnosed and untreated.
The New York Times says (March 5, 2011) that “Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns to Drug Therapy.” “Psychiatric hospitals that once offered patients months of talk therapy now discharge them within days with only pills. … A psychiatrist can earn $150 for three 15-minute medication visits compared with $90 for a 45-minute talk therapy session.” Yet, “Recent studies suggest that talk therapy may be as good as or better than drugs in the treatment of depression.”
Sure, people can have difficult problems in their lives, and at times they can be mentally unstable, subject to unreasonable depression, anxiety or panic. Mental health care is therefore both valid and necessary. However, the emphasis must be on workable mental healing methods that improve and strengthen individuals and thereby society by restoring people to personal strength, ability, competence, confidence, stability, responsibility and spiritual well-being. Psychiatric drugs and psychiatric treatments are not workable.
Find out more about psychiatric drug side effects by clicking here.
For the next few days in St. Louis, you have a unique opportunity to find out about these issues. Visit the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death international touring exhibit before it leaves town. The last day for free tours is Saturday, March 12.