More than a quarter of people in the US who take anti--depressants have never been diagnosed with any of the conditions the drugs are typically used to treat, according to a study.
As a result, millions could be exposed to side effects from the medicines without proven health benefits, said Jina Pagura, a psychologist and currently a medical student at the University of Manitoba in Canada, and colleagues who worked on the study.
“We cannot be sure that the risks and side effects of anti--depressants are worth the benefit of taking them for people who do not meet criteria for major depression,” Pagura said in an e-mail.
For the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, Pagura and colleagues tapped into data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiologic Surveys, which include a nationally representative sample of more than 20,000 US adults interviewed between 2001 and 2003.
Roughly one in ten people told interviewers they had been taking anti-depressants during the previous year, yet a quarter of those people had never been diagnosed with any of the conditions that doctors usually treat with the medications, such as major depression and anxiety disorder.
“These individuals are likely approaching their physicians with concerns that may be related to depression, and could include symptoms like trouble sleeping, poor mood, difficulties in relationships, etc,” Pagura said.
“Although an antidepressant might help with these issues, the problems may also go away on their own with time, or might be more amenable to counseling or psychotherapy.”
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 15 million people in the US suffer from major depression, and 40 million more have anxiety disorders.
Although the survey did not include all mental illnesses that might have led doctors to prescribe an antidepressant, other experts said the latest findings are not exaggerated.
“Reviews of claims records, which are diagnoses actually given by health care professionals, suggest that only about 50 percent of patients who are prescribed anti-depressants receive a psychiatric diagnosis,” said Mark Olfson, a psychiatrist at Columbia University in New York.
With sales of US$9.9 billion in 2009, up 3 percent from the previous year, anti-depressants rank fourth among prescription drugs in the US, said IMS Health, a company that analyzes the pharmaceutical industry.
While studies have shown the drugs may help some people with depression, they come with a price tag — and not only the US$100 or more that a month’s supply can cost. Some users experience sexual problems or gain weight.
However, it is still not easy to say if anti-depressants are being over-prescribed as a blanket statement, health experts said.
“There are undoubtedly many people being prescribed anti--depressants that may not be effective for them, but there are also millions of Americans suffering from depression who are not being prescribed anti--depressants or are being prescribed them at a suboptimal dose,” said Jeffrey Harman, who lectures in health services at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS