Well, this is a depressing report.
Earlier this month the Archives of General Psychiatry released a much publicized study that one in 10 Americans is now taking antidepressants within the course of a year, making antidepressants the most prescribed kind of medication in the country. [...] One has to wonder: Are we really that miserable?
Manipulated might be a better word than miserable. If we were to pick one factor that explains the dramatically increased number of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (the technical name for drugs like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft) that now run through our collective bloodstream, it would be direct-to-consumer advertising, otherwise known as television commercials for prescription drugs. [...] The pharmaceutical companies concentrated on their best-selling “blockbuster” drugs — Lipitor, Claritin, Nexium, Viagra, as well as the psychiatric drugs Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, and more currently, Effexor and Lexapro — and soon enough these drugs became, quite literally, household names, the celebrities of pharmaceutical agents.
Damn. All I get is blood pressure medication.
Much easier to give a pill than sit down and have a conversation, plus the hot babe pharmacy rep buys you lunch. Doc gets paid for followup.
Everybody wins except for the patients.
Just example No. 1495 as to how Single Payer could be provided to all at a reduced price for all.
But it won’t happen. Almost makes me depressed, but rather than see the monopolistic Doc pretending to be a businessman or a care giver, I’ll just pop another beer.
All the Kool-Aid drinkers will need the anti-depressants since Teddy died.
Pretty sure he won’t be meeting Mary Jo…
@Mr Diesel
Pot meet kettle.
I’ll be the first to name it, “The Edward M Kennedy Healthcare Reform Act”. He would be the first to tell you to run with it.
So we’re going to move the Kennedy comments here instead? Pretty much the only thing I know about him is his poor driving skills. Not being from the East Coast and having been born in the 70s I don’t really care about the Kennedys.
I am going to bring this back on topic. I think Americans are over prescribed medicine in general. Last semester I took a creative writing course and it surprised me that I was the only one that wasn’t taking some kind of drugs for depression, bipolar disorder, or other mental problems. I don’t understand how in a sample size that small there can be so many people that are mentally ill unless they are over pre-scribed.
Even cholesterol and blood pressure problems are over diagnosed to sell medicine. It is a scam by drug companies. Drug companies should only be allowed to market prescription drugs to those who can legally write prescriptions.
#7, Benji,
Maybe the Creative Writing Course was suggested as part of their therapy?
@Benjamin
Why is pot STILL illegal? The companies that produce these drugs can’t stand the competition. Have you ever seen an unhappy pot head?
Just a tokey a day
keeps Alzheimer at bay
You know, I’m happy to read this!
Of possible http://tinyurl.com/mdgl2y” rel=”nofollow”>interest to readers of this post, depressed or not.
I think it’s because nobody smokes anymore. It used to be very therapeutic to take a break and have a quiet smoke when things were getting weird. Boy, those were the days. *sigh*
Yeah, some times I miss smoking cigarettes.
#9, Mr. Improbus,
Have you ever seen an unhappy pot head?
Well, uummm, ya. Being put into the backseat of a police car.
Once, back in the olden days, we had all this pot and no flame. We could improvise a pipe, but not the fire. Ya, we were pretty unhappy. The nearest town was several miles away and we had to wait for our friends to show up to get out of there.
Your point is well taken.
I don’t believe the 1/10 figure; it’s far too low. My own experience is that this is far more widespread.
What these drugs manage to accomplish more than anything is to keep people working at jobs that they would have quit in other eras.
True story…my doctor put me in on Paxil for depression, the shit made me crazy.
Seems all I needed to do was quit doing coke, Vicodin, Ambien, cigarettes, alcohol, oh and of course that particular doctor.
Kept the marijuana though, and today I am happy as a clam.
My kid’s doctor said he should be on antidepressants. I looked into it. Finally, I said no.. I wondered when he would get OFF of them, and asked myself how ANYONE could get off of them. If you take a damn pill to feel better, what would ever make you no longer dependent, if once in a while, like everybody else, you did not feel elated??? “No pills for YOU!” I told him. Also, “Man up and deal with it!”
#8 “Maybe the Creative Writing Course was suggested as part of their therapy?”
Not really. Creative people are more eccentric and now there is a trend of diagnosing eccentric people with mental illness. It’s not right to give drugs to people that can function normally without drugs. I also think that doctors are diagnosing bad behavior as mental illness.
There are people with mental illness that medicine does help. I am not talking about these people.
Is the human interaction among citizens in the US better because of all the anti-depression medication out there?
To answer my own question…
@Mr Diesel
Of course he won’t be meeting Mary Jo, she’s an unmarried fornicator and burning in Hell.