Is the US an overmedicated Prozac nation? Or are those who think so overopiniona

[Carl]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2869336

BurtWorm  (1000+ posts)         Fri Feb-15-08 08:13 AM
Original message
Is the US an overmedicated Prozac nation? Or are those who think so overopinionated?   
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Edited on Fri Feb-15-08 08:14 AM by BurtWorm
If you think the former, read this essay by Judith Warner and think again:


http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/overselling-... /




Overselling Overmedication

...The notion that American children and adults are being over-diagnosed and overmedicated for exaggerated or even fictitious mental disorders has now become one of the defining tropes of our era.

This storyline persists despite the fact that government research has repeatedly shown that most adults and children with mental health issues don’t get the specialized help that they need. It persists despite the fact that there’s really no way to meaningfully evaluate the degree of over-diagnosis and medication unique to our era, because to do so is essentially to look at the current era in a vacuum. We don’t know how many adults suffered from things like depression in the distant past because no one ever asked. The words and concepts through which we understand common mental health disorders today didn’t exist until the last few decades.

The narrative survives largely uncontested despite the fact, shared by psychiatrist Peter Kramer in his Slate review of Barber’s book, that only tiny numbers of people are receiving mental health services without real, clinical levels of mental health dysfunction or a history of mental illness or trauma. And despite the fact that, contrary to received wisdom, the United States is not a world leader when it comes to the use of psychiatric medications. (The U.S. is “’in the middle’ relative to other countries, and is not an outlier,” a study from M.I.T’s. Sloan School of Management, cited by Kramer, showed last year.)

Just because it feels like, just because it sounds like, just because soaring drug company profits and obnoxious direct to consumer advertising seem to indicate that everyone around us is popping pills like mad doesn’t mean that they are doing so. Nor does it mean that we’re in the grip of some new, previously unheard-of, and uniquely epoch-defining social phenomenon.

...

And what if, examined in the light of basic facts, and with a perturbing bit of common sense thrown into the mix, the popular storyline of our fatal corruption by Big Pharma turns out to be, if not utterly baseless, then at least greatly exaggerated?

Kramer, the author of the 1993 bestseller “Listening to Prozac” and, more recently, “Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind” and “Against Depression,” makes a quite compelling case in his Slate review that the received wisdom about psychiatric drug use today is ahistorical, narrow in its cultural understanding and factually, often wrong.

...

Here we go...

spoony  (1000+ posts)        Sat Feb-16-08 03:18 AM
Response to Reply #20
21. Have any personal experience?
   I do, and that "mind numbing" nonsense is just crap. Or perhaps you have some statistics about people on anti-depressants causing accidents? Otherwise you're just spreading ignorance.

marions ghost  (1000+ posts)        Fri Feb-15-08 12:25 PM
Response to Reply #4
10. I'm very aware of that
   and have had treatment for PTSD myself (from a life-altering natural disaster 10 years ago).

But I don't buy that people always need to be medicated for life because of one event. What I'm saying is there is not much encouragement (or support) for those who might be able to get off drugs in this country. In the case of my friend there has been absolutely none that I can see and I have been very close to the situation for over 8 years. Also my elderly father was over-medicated for many years for anxiety and when the medication was finally lowered by a different doctor he became a completely different person--full of energy--he can actually complete goals and projects that formerly were beyond him. It's like a late blooming. Everybody notices the change in him.

In my friend over time I have seen how the dependency on drugs has compounded her problems. She is subject to fits of anger and rage, she has caused damage with people because she refuses to take any responsibility for her inappropriate behavior, she has retreated to a world where everything must be perfect and fine and wonderful ALL the time. I should also say that this is a smart, talented, creative, and in many ways a kind and good individual. But I do believe the longterm dependency on these drugs has messed her up. Of course anti-depressants might not have this damaging an effect on others. Everyone is different, but what I'm saying is that there is not enough help for those who might be best off without these powerful drugs.

kineneb (1000+ posts)         Fri Feb-15-08 02:43 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. actually sounds like your friend needs different meds
   anger and rage are sometimes indicators of poorly/untreated depression. Not all of those who suffer with depression are immobile, hiding under the bed types. Before I was put on my medication, I was almost intolerable; Hubby called that personality "The bitch from hell". All I knew was that every little difficulty would set me off, as if my senses were all raw.

The best treatment for mood disorders is a combination of medications and talk therapy.

BurtWorm  (1000+ posts)         Fri Feb-15-08 11:15 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. All I know is   
   mine monitors me. I see him every other month. He's available all the time if needed.

I don't know how other people's doctors are.
   

How can one do that without single payer,socialized healthcare? 

QuestionAll  (1000+ posts)        Sat Feb-16-08 02:22 AM
Response to Original message
18. people who think the country is over-medicated need to take a chill pill.
   nt

quantessd  (1000+ posts)         Sat Feb-16-08 03:42 AM
Response to Original message
22. Yes, antidepressants are glad-handed out like candy canes at Christmas,
   Yet, counseling is hard to come by. The most valuable part of treatment for depression is talking to a qualified therapist, yet, that's the elusive, expensive part for low-income people. I'm currently depressed, and I have been in the past. I know that talking to a good counselor is what has helped me the most. I have taken Zoloft, which was pretty helpful, and not addictive at all.

The drugs are helpful to a degree, but they can be addictive, such as Effexor-XR. My current dosage of Effexor-XR is 37.5 mg, which is a very low dosage. I'm almost over it! The way Effexor was prescribed to me...I told my doctor about my very real depression, then my physician gave me a bunch of free samples of Effexor-XR, and prescribed it to me. I became physically addicted to it. I'm not saying the drug didn't help me feel better---it really did---, but, it was extremely uncomfortable to miss a dose. Reducing the dosage was difficult and uncomfortable. I'm down to half a dose, and I will feel free when I am not addicted to Effexor-XR anymore. I am almost there!

If I had known how addictive Effexor XR was, I would never have taken it!

Herdin_Cats (166 posts)         Sat Feb-16-08 04:05 AM
Response to Reply #22
23. I had withdrawals from Effexor as well.
   Edited on Sat Feb-16-08 04:06 AM by Herdin_Cats
It was hell coming off it. They tell us these anti-depressants aren't addictive. But so many people have had withdrawal symptoms when they've stopped taking them.

I went off the Effexor carefully, was weaned off it slowly with help from my doctor. Still, when I finally quit taking it completely, I had serious withdrawal symptoms. SEVERE irritability, crawling sensations on my skin, and even a minor hallucinatory episode. I've never experienced anything like that before or since and it scared the crap out of me. I will never take an antidepressant again. It didn't even help with the depression. AT ALL.

It's not the kind of addiction where you crave the substance and want more of it. Not at all. And once you're off it and the withdrawals are over, you don't have any desire to start taking it again. But if it causes withdrawal symptoms when you stop, I would say it's physically addictive.

I think there needs to be more research into these drugs. INDEPENDENT research. Not only is there evidence of these drugs causing serious harm, such as an increase in suicidality, there is now evidence that their effectivness has been exaggerated. Here's an article about that.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_60100...


   

Is it any wonder that they obsess over and crave free (to them) healthcare?

[franksolich]

You know, to me, this is one of the more-significant primitive hypocrisies.

On one hand, the primitives are "big" into all this natural stuff, natural foods, natural healing, whatnot.

But on the other hand, the primitives are big into putting chemicals into their bodies.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The narrative survives largely uncontested despite the fact, shared by psychiatrist Peter Kramer in his Slate review of Barber’s book, that only tiny numbers of people are receiving mental health services without real, clinical levels of mental health dysfunction or a history of mental illness or trauma. And despite the fact that, contrary to received wisdom, the United States is not a world leader when it comes to the use of psychiatric medications. (The U.S. is “’in the middle’ relative to other countries, and is not an outlier,” a study from M.I.T’s. Sloan School of Management, cited by Kramer, showed last year.)

Two problems with this:
1.  The "real, clinincal levels of mental health dysfunction or a history etc." depends on documentation from the same people prescribing the meds, which descriptions in turn are written with an eye to meeting the insurance carrier's (or Medicaid's, or Medicare's) criteria for justifying the prescription, so their objectivity is inherently open to question.
2.  The US has radically different size, population dynamics, and mental health service availability than any other industrialized nation.  This means that if you compared the central Midwest to a comparable number of square miles in central Europe, you would have a drastically different result than if you compared coastal California or the Northeast Corridor to comparable areas there.
I would therefore hesitate to put any particular weight on this document. 

[Chris_]

You know, to me, this is one of the more-significant primitive hypocrisies.

On one hand, the primitives are "big" into all this natural stuff, natural foods, natural healing, whatnot.

But on the other hand, the primitives are big into putting chemicals into their bodies.

They also hate the Eeevil Big Corporations who only want profits so their overpaid executives can light cigars with $20 bills.  Even if those eevil corporations create the drugs these people crave.

[franksolich]

They also hate the Eeevil Big Corporations who only want profits so their overpaid executives can light cigars with $20 bills.  Even if those eevil corporations create the drugs these people crave.

That's also something I've wondered about, from time to time.

The primitives are big on boycotts.

The primitives don't like the monster pharmaceutical companies.

Okay.

Why don't the primitives boycott the pharmaceutical manufacturers?

Could it be--yeah, it probably is--that the primitives think they're already boycotting the evil drug corporations, because the primitives don't pay for the products, the taxpayers do?