The Rise in Antidepressant Therapies in America

Recently I happened upon the book, Mood Cure, by Julia Ross, which offers an alternative approach to antidepressant therapies in people wanting to avoid these types of medications. I once had the opportunity to hear Ross lecture at my former medical school. She spoke about alternative treatments to depression that included counseling, diet, herbal, homeopathic and amino-acid support. Such simple wisdom seems all too often lost on the majority of health practitioners, many of whom simply do not have the training or time to offer such medical alternative care.
The number of Americans currently on antidepressant medications is staggering. I can't help but wonder at the myriad of reasons why. Over-prescription, trauma, abuse, and few alternative treatment options by prescribing physicians are only some of the reasons. The idea that some forms of grief can and should be treated with a pill seems to have grown out of a modern approach to medicine that is unique to this country. Overworked doctors with little time to spend with patients offer little solace, and instead treat every ill first with a pill, and rarely by suggesting lifestyle changes.
Unfortunately, many antidepressant medications are difficult to withdraw from once a person has been placed on them, and they are also not without side effects. Side effects may include sexual dysfunction, Parkinson's-like symptoms, aggressive mood changes, ticks, dizziness, and intense depression-like symptoms that make discontinuing the medications difficult. This issue has been addressed by Joseph Glenmullen, the Harvard based psychiatrist, in two separate books; first in Prozac Backlash, and then again in The Anti-Depressant Solution. What is interesting to note is that the rise in prescription drug use may be just as much a statement about how medicine is practiced in the United States, as is the problem of rising depression; and not necessarily the best treatment option available. This is not to say that some people have not benefited from prescription medications, but rather I believe, like Glenumullen, that they are often over-prescribed and potentially dangerous.