Antidepressant use doubles

In less than a decade, the number of Americans taking antidepressants has doubled.

According to a new study by Columbia University's Mark Olfson, the number of Americans using antidepressants doubled between 1996 and 2005 (the most recent year for which data is available) to about 10% of the American population. This includes children and adults alike.

Many folks have concluded that there were a lot more things by 2005 to get people depressed - and I have no doubt about that. But a majority of Americans taking antidepressants don't take them for depression. Most take these drugs for conditions like fatigue or insomnia.

We should be asking whether people are actually satisfied with this treatment. Clearly there are alternatives, as these conditions were being treated with other methods before 1996 (a year that is almost synonymous with the rise of corporate power and greed).

We should also be asking if this trend has been influenced by the fourfold increase in antidepressant advertising.

We should also be looking at some of the dangerous side effects that have long been attributed to antidepressants - and asking ourselves if this is really what the country needs. Countless individuals have reported elsewhere that their lives were destroyed by these drugs.

Antidepressant use has increased for all ages despite the fact that antidepressants now have an FDA black box warning against using them in children.

During the same time frame in this study, the suicide rate also climbed - which is more proof that antidepressants don't work.

(Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-08-03-antidepressants_N.htm)