There is an interesting study out in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry that has concluded that the majority of people taking antidepressants may not actually have depression. The study found that more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of people taking antidepressants did not meet the criteria for major depressive disorder, or clinical depression.
Some 38 per cent of those taking the drugs did not meet the criteria for obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, social phobia or generalised anxiety disorder either. More than two thirds of people taking antidepressants did not meet the criteria for clinical depression.
The researchers believe that doctors are prescribing the drugs without real “evidence-based indications.” Instead, it appears that people who are experiencing normal periods of blues or unhappiness are being put on these regimes. The official guidelines state that clinical depression should be diagnosed if a person has five or more depressive symptoms over a two week period. These periods are supposed to cover most of each day and nearly every day.
The United States is not the most medicated. That position belongs to Iceland with 106 doses a day for every 1,000 inhabitants — followed by Australia, Canada, Denmark, Sweden and Portugal. The lowest levels? Chile and South Korea.
Source: Daily Mail
Last year, over 850,000 people in America were arrested for marijuana-related crimes. Despite public opinion, the medical community, and human rights experts all moving in favor of relaxing marijuana prohibition laws, little has changed in terms of policy.
There have been many great books and articles detailing the history of the drug war. Part of America’s fixation with keeping the leafy green plant illegal is rooted in cultural and political clashes from the past.
However, we at Republic Report think it’s worth showing that there are entrenched interest groups that are spending large sums of money to keep our broken drug laws on the books:
1.) Police Unions: Police departments across the country have become dependent on federal drug war grants to finance their budget. In March, we published a story revealing that a police union lobbyist in California coordinated the effort to defeat Prop 19, a ballot measure in 2010 to legalize marijuana, while helping his police department clients collect tens of millions in federal marijuana-eradication grants. And it’s not just in California. Federal lobbying disclosures show that other police union lobbyists have pushed for stiffer penalties for marijuana-related crimes nationwide.
2.) Private Prisons Corporations: Private prison corporations make millions by incarcerating people who have been imprisoned for drug crimes, including marijuana. As Republic Report’s Matt Stoller noted last year, Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest for-profit prison companies, revealed in a regulatory filing that continuing the drug war is part in parcel to their business strategy. Prison companies have spent millions bankrolling pro-drug war politicians and have used secretive front groups, like the American Legislative Exchange Council, to pass harsh sentencing requirements for drug crimes.
3.) Alcohol and Beer Companies: Fearing competition for the dollars Americans spend on leisure, alcohol and tobacco interests have lobbied to keep marijuana out of reach. For instance, the California Beer & Beverage Distributors contributed campaign contributions to a committee set up to prevent marijuana from being legalized and taxed.
4.) Pharmaceutical Corporations: Like the sin industries listed above, pharmaceutical interests would like to keep marijuana illegal so American don’t have the option of cheap medical alternatives to their products. Howard Wooldridge, a retired police officer who now lobbies the government to relax marijuana prohibition laws, told Republic Report that next to police unions, the “second biggest opponent on Capitol Hill is big PhRMA” because marijuana can replace “everything from Advil to Vicodin and other expensive pills.”
5.) Prison Guard Unions: Prison guard unions have a vested interest in keeping people behind bars just like for-profit prison companies. In 2008, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association spent a whopping $1 million to defeat a measure that would have “reduced sentences and parole times for nonviolent drug offenders while emphasizing drug treatment over prison.”
DBQ
You hit the nail pretty close to smack dab center of the head. We do live in a world of illusion and that illusion, the one that used to be distanced through having to read a newspaper, book, etc is now shoved down our throats through advertising, political BS, and the great combination of the two.
An interesting observation is that those that are blamed for coddling those that need a reality check, i.e. the progressives and liberals, are also those that would impose the restrictions on this sort of manipulation of the media, in order to take the ‘free enterprise’ factor out of the equation. Point out a member of the Republican party that wants to stop private interest money from Big Pharma from entering politics.
Regulation and deregulation only have merits or vices depending on what they regulate or deregulate. It seems that most voters jump at the intent to regulate because it violates some Constitutional right, in their subconscious.
You are correct, as individuals we do have the obligation to face ourselves and our successes and failures, to either mitigate them or simply accept them. However as a society we do owe ourselves some dignity and poor or rich, there is no dignity whatsoever in allowing Big Pharma or any other special interest group control our government by purchasing our supposedly freely elected representatives. There is no dignity either in having salt rubbed into the wounds by having to listen to these nefarious commercials touting the benefits of taking drugs regardless of the side effects.
One stretches it somewhat to call this stupidity American.
That’s very impressive Paul.
And some people self medicate for psych issues with medical marijauna, off label use actually, how apropos.
While it is apparent antidepressants are over prescribed, there are still some people that are not getting the proper psych meds. People w/ serious psych issues will often refuse to face their disorder, and refuse any type treatment. For a form of depression like borderline personality disorder, antidepressants can be a tool in treatment. But, like all serious psych issues, drugs are not the panacea. Psychotherapy is integral to any treatment regimen.
Yawn.
Of course, Inga misreads and reflexively types her usual errata.
Of course Pogo turns this into a another blame the government issue. Doctor, heal thyself.
Bingo, DBQ.
Life is suffering, get used to disappointment.
Build a hard shell.
Become resilient to adversity.
Keep moving forward.
People I see are under high stress and have terrible things going on in their lives. Regular daily life is hard.
We self-medicate or take prescriptions to reduce our sense of unease, anxiety, dysphoria, sadness, anger,etc.
There are other, better ways to manage all that, but guess what the government and insurance companies pay MDs for?
Prescription-writing.
Not counseling.
So, prescriptions it is.
Enjoy your Paxil.
Grumpy old man syndrome.
It’s still a false equivalence, no matter how many times (or how many people) say it.
“Ad hominem” attacks? Oh, that’s good.
anonymous – another ad hominem attack.
I meant….they blame others instead of themselves. Proof reading is a lost art for me….evidently. 🙁
My question is, why are patients seeing MDs and other practitioners?
@ Pogo
My guess. People have been conditioned to think that life is supposed to be full of fulfilled dreams. That the fairytale should come true and it should happen to you. When it doesn’t people get depressed. They blame themselves and instead of shrugging it off or looking inward as to what went wrong they think that the magic pill will be the answer.
That is much easier than looking at your failed marriage and admitting your part in it. Easier than accepting that you are not necessarily a socially adept person and “gosh darn it….people don’t like you” or a whole host of other things that can accumulate into a depressive state. Pills are easier than FIXING the issue. You failed. Life sucks. It didn’t go your way. So….wadya gonna do about it? Mope. Take pills (drink yourself into oblivion). OR address the problem. Or…even embrace the problem and own it.
Of course I am not talking about the deeply clinically depressed who need not just medication by some sort of therapy and who are seriously mentally in distress. I’m talking about the plethora of people who are just bummed out and can’t deal with it.
As always….there is a Princess Bride clip to illustrate.
Pogo, I didn’t say it was the entire reason for the large number of antidepressants prescribed. Don’t jump to conclusions.
Paul, I most certainly haven’t discussed every type of nursing I’ve done in my 35 years of nursing. And Paul what you know about the inner workings of clinics, nursing homes and hospitals probably does not impress anyone.
Inga – I have spent a lot of my time over the years in clinics, hospitals and nursing homes. I tend to ask a lot of questions and I am very observant. Add to that my years teaching nursing students and I have some background in the area. Plus, I used to drink with a drug rep.
“I’ve seen a few docs prescribe anti depressants sometimes ”
Sure, but that cannot account for the millions of prescriptions written.
Think harder.
It’s not a false equivalence.
Every industry has similar practices, more or less.
Pharma’s spending on MDs has changed markedly due to regulations.
They can fund lunches and conferences, but I rarely see the drug reps except standing forlornly at their tables, with nothing to give away but research articles.
The biggest change is that the drug reps are no longer ex-cheerleaders or other PYTs.
The money must be elsewhere.
Lobbying is my bet.
I’ve seen a few docs prescribe anti depressants sometimes when they can’t make a diagnosis based on the patient’s symptoms, labs, etc. Later the patient is admitted to the ER and then finally seen by different docs and diagnosed correctly.
PCS: “BTW, it is NOT a False equivalence. But keep beating that drum.”
It is. And I will.
And one benign example does not a case make.
anonymous – and two ad hominem attacks does not an intellectual giant make.
I would be interested to know what people here think the problem is in the issue at hand (i.e., Study: 69 Percent Of People On Antidepressants Do Not Meet Criteria For Clinical Depression).
Many seem to have drifted into blaming Big Pharma for its advertising and giving gifts to MDs.
Is there any truth to that? Any proof?
Correlation ≠ causation, of course.
Such conclusions neglect the primary reason for medication use in the US:
Patients.
Are patients helpless children who always do what they’re told and take medicines no questions asked, being subservient to persuasive advertising and nefarious MD prescriptions?
Or are patients independent actors who take medicines they themselves have decided to take?
A little of both?
Or something else?
My question is, why are patients seeing MDs and other practitioners?
Symptoms.
Why do these symptoms result in SSRI and SNRI prescriptions?
It seems unlikely that MDs are giving anti-depressants instead of insulin or heart medicines.
Ask yourself: Why are patients seeking out medical care that results in anti-depressant use in the first place?