October 20, 2011 9:04 AM

Antidepressant use soars, study says: Is depression overdiagnosed?

By
Ryan Jaslow
Topics
News ,
Research

(Credit: istockphoto)

(CBS) Antidepressant use is skyrocketing. A new CDC report shows that over a 10-year period the use of the pills has risen a staggering 400 percent.

PICTURES - Depression nation: 16 saddest states

The report - based on surveys and screenings of 12,000 Americans from 2005 to 2008 shows that 11 percent of Americans aged 12 and over are taking an antidepressant.

Eleven percent of the population taking an antidepressant? That sounds like a big number, but the authors of the report said that many people who could benefit from antidepressants aren't taking them. Only a third of people with symptoms of severe depression take antidepressants, they said.

The report also found that 8 percent of Americans without any depressive symptoms take the drugs, but the authors said that could include people who take the drugs for anxiety as well as once-depressed people who continue to take the drugs after their symptoms have lifted.

Other findings from the report provide a clearer picture of which Americans are taking antidepressants. Females are more than 2.5 times as likely to take the drugs as males, with nearly a quarter of all women aged 40-59 taking antidepressants. Non-Hispanic white persons are 10 percent more likely than non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican-Americans to take the drugs, the report showed.

The report also provided insight into how long people are taking antidepressants. More than 60 percent of Americans have taken their antidepressants for at least two years, while 14 percent have taken the medication for 10 years or more.

But people who are popping pills aren't necessarily getting them from a psychiatrist, or getting additional therapy that some experts recommend along with antidepressants.

The report showed that less than one-third of Americans taking antidepressants have seen a mental health professional in the past year. People taking two antidepressants fared slightly better with their follow-ups, with less than one-half seeing a mental health doctor within a year.

Dr. Norman Sussman, a psychiatrist at New York University, told the Washington Post that this finding might be representative of more people going to primary care doctors for their treatment, which is concerning. "The fact that non-psychiatrists are not as well-informed about some of the risks and limitations of these drugs is of concern," he said.

Other experts disagree, and think the primary care physician is a necessary cog in fighting depression.

"The reality is that there are not enough mental health care providers around to treat all who need it," Dr. Gary Small, a psychiatrist and director of the UCLA Center on Aging, told ABC News. "Part of what we do as psychiatrists is teach doctor's how to diagnose and treat depression so that a lot of depression can be handled in primary care."

The full report is here.



Add a Comment
by johnny33405usa October 20, 2011 1:01 PM EDT
"Is depression overdiagnosed?"
In adults. NO.
Reply to this comment
by dejahthoris2 October 20, 2011 12:16 PM EDT
I don't care if people want to take drugs to get through life, legal or illegal, but forcing drugs on our children so they sit still in a hard desks for hours being force fed test answers so they can pass them for the sake of the school's funding is ghoulish and horrific.
Reply to this comment
by SeriousRealNews October 20, 2011 10:33 AM EDT
Well maybe if GPs would stop diagnosing depression, a disease they did not go to school for, and drug companies stop dishing out incentives to push their drugs, there would not be such an increase.

http://seriouslyrealnews.blogspot.com/
Reply to this comment
by cmnsnse101 October 20, 2011 10:28 AM EDT
Overdiagnosed? So the problem is what? Dr. Gary Small said,...

"The reality is that there are not enough mental health care providers around to treat all who need it," Dr. Gary Small, a psychiatrist and director of the UCLA Center on Aging, told ABC News. "Part of what we do as psychiatrists is teach doctor's how to diagnose and treat depression so that a lot of depression can be handled in primary care."

The lost and non-profit TRUTH is AMERICAN'S are OVERMEDICATED. We now live in a heavily medicated society. Nowhere in the article does the word "profit" appear....such as the profit that the drug companies are making from the overmedicated Americans. The News Media does their part too because they run these pharmaseutical commercials daily and endlessly during thier newscasts.

I don't intend to take from those who are truly depressed. Maybe for others...there is a mere mourning for the society we once invisioned compared to the one we're being dished. Maybe for some, it's a form of "affluenza". Maybe for some it's the Economy and the helplessness they feel within it. Maybe some are merely mourning a loss. Are basic coping skills becoming a thing of the past?

The tobacco companies were held liable for what they did and the media coverage was extensive. How are you, as the media, going to cover the pharmasceutical companies for what they have and are doing? You run thier commercials? On behalf of all the Americans who have lost their voice, thanks for the support.
Reply to this comment
by nicmart October 20, 2011 10:08 AM EDT
Whether depression is "overdiagnosed" is both the point and beside the point. Depression -- which used to mean extended severe misery but now encompasses unhappiness of any intensity or duration -- is not a medical matter. That is not to say that people can't feel better when they ingest chemicals. Many people feel great when they ingest cocaine, bourbon, or marijuana, for instance. But the ingestion of "antidepressant" drugs is no more medical than is smoking marijuana or drinking scotch, and neither is the improved mood while under the influence.

As psychiatry has expanded, so has the list of behaviors it has medicalized. But this trend is a matter of politics and economics rather than science and medicine. It is immensely profitable for doctors to diagnose and "treat" moods and behaviors, and it increases their status and power. On the other hand, it is mendacious, and reduces the wealth and power of those of us who are not making, prescribing, and selling the drugs.
Reply to this comment
by kbwalker63 October 20, 2011 9:59 AM EDT
I would venture to guess that people are generally a lot more depressed these days, so it is not at all surprising that antidepressant use is up.
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