Big Pharm Wants You to Take Drugs

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Unbelievably 11% of Americans over the age of 12 take antidepressants and that makes Big Pharm very happy.

A Center for Disease Control study released this month reports that over a 10-year period the use of the pills has risen a staggering 400%.  Females were found to be 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.

As a woman of this age demographic, I find that disturbing, though not surprising. I know many of these women with dead-end jobs, sick children and unsupportive spouses who can use all the help they can get.  I don’t want to be dismissive of their problems and I have no medical training whatsoever, but, c’mon, one in four middle-aged women needs a happy pill?

The CDC study noted that some people take antidepressants for reasons other than depression, such as control of menopausal symptoms. Well, I get that. I wake up in a sweat 3-5 times every night for no apparent reason. I’ve come to accept the disruptive sleep and blast furnace effect on my chest and head as just part of my middle-aged self.  It’s uncomfortable but manageable. Regular exercise seems to help for me.

We didn’t take pills to get through puberty. Why now?

Hormone replacement therapy drugs used to be the most prescribed meds in America until a long-term study revealed the risks of getting heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer and blood clots. Today, antidepressants have American women addicted to asking their doctors if  X is right for them.

Yeah, I know. I sound like Nancy Reagan telling a severely depressed person “Just be happy.” It’s not that easy. Empathy fail on my part. But I worry about us getting addicted not only to pills, but also to our expensive health care system. We’re the bosses of our own bodies, not them.

And, you, teens and 20-somethings on antidepressants — what kind of mood control pills will you need when you’re my age? Horse tranquilizers?

 

About Post Author

Liz Putnam

Liz Putnam is a retired automotive trade magazine editor from Columbus, Ohio.
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12 years ago

Liz, in many ways, your absolutely right when it comes to prescribing antidepressants frivolously.

But, like lazersedge, I know the problem is far beyond black and white. On the surface, your argument makes a lot of sense. The reality is that there are many, many salient reasons for antidepressants.

I was fortunate enough to work for a major medical research facility. Here is what I learned.

The first step in which a depressed person needs to engage is talk therapy. No matter what school of psychology works (Jungian, Behavior Modification, etc.), it’s essential for an individual to discover if s/he can deal with problems without medication. The initial line of dealing with depression should always be non-medical.

If a person does, in fact, need medication, then antidepressants can significantly help an individual who wants to continue to work on her/his own mental health. Pills alone cannot be a substitute for good mental health: the medication allows the extraneous “noise” in a person’s brain to become more quiet so a person can identify and work on issues they suffer.

Antidepressants are not “happy pills.” This is a myth which perhaps surfaced from Huxley’s Brave New World. They are medication prescribed to help genuinely depressed people from causing harm to themselves. They often serve as an excellent adjunct to talk therapy. Antidepressants are used for psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and countless other psychiatric ailments, many of which do not manifest until the onset of menopause.

It’s also important to remember that when an individual suffers from a mental ailment, doctors cannot just prescribe an SSRI to help a person back to mental health and expect it to work.

Sometimes, adjuvant therapy is needed to supplement the SSRI to make the combination of medications effective. Often, such treatment can occur during an entire decade to determine appropriate medial therapy.

Women between 40-59 are dealing with depression as well as constant bombardment of world issues. Add these challenges to getting old and feeling unattractive and worthless, based on ideal images of physical beauty from Wall Street and Hollywood, it’s no wonder 25% of women take antidepressants. Everywhere they turn, media is telling them they are washed up and too old to be beautiful or worthy of kindness.

I have to wonder how many women in this age group turn to excessive plastic surgery to “self-medicate” instead of taking the hard road to examine their feelings and determine why they feel depressed. Antidepressants can be an invaluable tool in this treatment.

I once again agree with lazersedge comment. Many people do, in fact, self medicate. Of the 25% of women who do use antidepressants, it would be interesting to see how large the percentage of individuals generally who use alcohol and other drugs to self medicate.

People do not “just get over” real depression. The CDC and the DSM both recognize depression as a disease and, more importantly, could be one symptom of a more serious underlying illness.

Taking antidepressants needs to occur after all other types of non-psychotropic treatment fails. Unfortunately, many people in this country are not fortunate enough to have access to psychiatric or psychological treatment.

Insurance companies do indeed ignore mental health issues as “get over it,” and justify that the decision to deny such treatment ultimately costs society far more money.

PTSD is one of the most serious types of depression. As America sends soldiers to war, they come home from war and have not been treated are more likely to cause harm to others, particularly family members. Often, soldiers are discharged with a “personality disorder” diagnosis. The question arises as to why they were admitted to the military. Those who receive a dishonorable discharged due to personality disorder receive no treatment.

I am a cancer survivor and participated in a 10-year clinical trial to help Stage II breast cancer patients. The drug ended up helping many, many women like me, and often do not have to experience the deleterious effects of chemotherapy because of those of us who wanted to help others.

After one particularly life-threatening episode, I lost almost all my neutrophils and could have died. I was fortunate to get a relatively new medication that restored my white blood cells. I later met the CEO of the pharmaceutical company, who I thanked for saving my life.

I would thankful if I had a major psychiatric problem and was prescribed drugs that could save my life.

I am hardly one to champion big pharma: certainly, there is much greed in these companies. Seeing those TV commercials for various drugs are particularly troublesome when one hears about the seemingly endless side effects… including death…

Diabetics take insulin, those with high cholesterol take statins, cancer patients need to endure chemotherapy and radiation to save their lives. Those with a bona fide psychiatric illness similarly need antidepressants. As with all other illnesses, the correct drug and dosage is different for each person. And such illnesses are not that easy to treat.

To add to a list of medication for ailments, fibromyalgia was once considered a disease to “get over.” Turns out it’s a real ailment where patients suffer tremendous pain.

Responding to the need for psychiatric drugs as unnecessary in any way is as dangerous as over-prescribing medication. People with genuine illnesses who may self-medicate are far more dangerous to themselves and others.

lazersedge
Reply to  Dorothy Anderson
12 years ago

Dorothy, reading your comment you jogged my memory on a point I missed earlier. I have two female friends who both take Cymbalta. That alone isn’t strange but I find the fact that one is diagnosed with severe clinical depression and the other with fybromyalgia to be odd. I am far from being a doctor but I didn’t know until a few years ago that the symptom treatment for both diseases was pretty much the same.
Another point here is that probably the only place one doesn’t get questioned about the reality of mental diseases these days is by the Veterans Administration. Their problem is that they are overwhelmed and underfunded to deal all the problems the government has put its young men and women through. I seriously doubt that this issue is even considered with they are calculating the costs of military action.

Reply to  lazersedge
12 years ago

The VA is certainly overwhelmed, lazersedge. One of the saddest sights is seeing homeless veterans on the street. I agree that mental illness after going to war is a problem neither the government nor the military has considered.

There are many drugs that serve dual purposes: you demonstrated just one example.

From WebMD: Antidepressants, anticonvulsants, narcolepsy drugs, pain relievers, sleep aids — when used to treat fibromyalgia symptoms, these medications alter brain chemistry to help reduce pain, improve sleep, and ease anxiety or depression… “Everyone wants a magic pill,” Cope tells WebMD, “but a pill can’t do everything.”… “There’s a bit of trial and error while you’re trying to land on a good treatment… Not every patient will respond well to a particular medication. It’s difficult to know which medication to try first. But working as a team during this trial and error phase is often an effective strategy.

Thanks for that, my friend.

lazersedge
12 years ago

While I applaud for your ability to control own mental health issues you may not be looking at the whole problem Liz. How many people today do you think are self medicating themselves with alcohol or other drugs because of difficulties in coping with life in a country that is trying to tear itself apart on a daily basis? People who did have jobs now have no job and people had very good jobs now have minimum wage jobs.
Depression is a mental health issue and because some people, perhaps like yourself, who say “just get over it” are creating havoc in peoples lives because of their inability to get help with their problem. Despite the fact that that the National Institute of Health and The Center for Communicable Diseases have long identified them as “diseases” those attitudes have allowed health insurance companies and employers to ignore mental health issues as a major problem. Instead of confronting it as a major societal issue we largely continue to ignore it while as much as 50 – 70% of those people we put in jails and prisons have Serious Mental Issues (SMI). Additionally, the suicide rate has been steadily rising since the beginning of this century.
As for the cost of the health care, would you be saying the same thing to persons who were suffering comparative medical problems. If a person was suffering from bleeding ulcers or rheumatoid arthritis, “yes I know its painful but it won’t kill you right away; get over it.” You might want to also want to consider some of our vets who served in Vietnam, or those coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and tell them the same thing. And while, being male, really don’t understand this whole postpartum depression thing I understand it is a major problem to those it affects. However, it seems that you and Tom Cruise don’t agree with that. That’s OK, just get over it.

12 years ago

Why is this so unbelievable? 9 out of 10 Americans over the age of 12 are not on antidepressants. That sounds like a great, believable, statistic to me.

Madbadger
Reply to  The Heathen Republican
12 years ago

Let us keep the information correct, they said 11%, not 9 out of 10!

Reply to  Madbadger
12 years ago

We’re splitting hairs here: if 90% of all people over the age of 12 are not taking antidepressants, we come up with 10% who are. But, if we are talking about 11%, then 89% of people over 12 are not taking antidepressants.

Since I’m horribly bad at math, I welcome any corrections. Usually, the answer I arrive at when attempting math I expect to be wrong.

Reply to  Dorothy Anderson
12 years ago

I’m amazed at how you both intentionally missed my point. Do you think it’s worth quibbling over 10% or 11%? I don’t, so I’ll try again.

Why is this so unbelievable? 89% of Americans over the age of 12 are not on antidepressants. That sounds like a great, believable, statistic to me.

Reply to  The Heathen Republican
12 years ago

That’s exactly the point I was making, Heathen Republican. BTW, I did stop by your blog. I’m looking forward to reading your posts more in-depth.

…let’s nonetheless state it clearly: not all Democrats are secularists and not all religious people are Republicans.

Off topic, but I found this post extremely interesting;

http://heathenrepublican.blogspot.com/2011/10/debating-how-much-republicans-hate-poor.html

I hope you stop by again. Although we have different ideologies, your perspectives on conservativism is a completely different take that I’ve encountered thus far.

Sincerest thanks…

Reply to  Dorothy Anderson
12 years ago

Dorothy thanks, and I see that I read your first comment too quickly. I hate the way people spin statistics to convey a message, when 89% off depressants is a pretty good number.

I hope you do stop by. We may find a few things to agree on even if we usually don’t.

Reply to  The Heathen Republican
12 years ago

No worries. As Mark Twain wrote, There’s lies, damn lies, and statistics. There is definitely one point on which we agree: civility and rational discussion.

liz
Reply to  The Heathen Republican
12 years ago

If one in four middle-aged women suffers from “chemical imbalance,” either the definition of chemical imbalance is wrong or there is a much deeper problem.

Reply to  liz
12 years ago

Liz, I agree with you on this. There is, indeed, a much deeper problem in our society.

Yes, there are those who genuinely suffer from a chemical imbalance; others may take a pill thinking medication will cure all their problems. The “pills will solve everything” mentality is at the core of the problem. Those are the people who don’t realize they still have to face their problems and deal with them.

The women who do not need antidepressants and take them anyway for a quick fix are the ones big pharma goes after: you can see a plethora of commercials on that.

I like your article. It gave me an opportunity to think carefully about these issues. In fact, I was only addressing the antidepressants prescribed to people that really need them. Too many people who don’t need them are taking them.

Thanks… you generated a great discussion thread.

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