When we fall and get hurt we go to the doctor, the doctor is able to take an x-ray and see that your bone is broken. In return they give you, your favorite color cast to have all your friends sign. Mental illness isn’t as simple as running a test and being able to know exactly what’s wrong. Before medication was popular form of treatment, society would have to go therapy and be extensively evaluated before any course of treatment was given to a patient. Why it is that now anyone can go into the doctor and leave to go pick up a prescription from the nearest Walgreens? Is society being over medicated for mental illness or is society being under treated?
In the article “Are we living in an overmedicated society” by Tim Stoddart has brought to attention how many people from our population have been put on medication, debating do they really …show more content…
“From 1996 to 2005, the number of prescribed antidepressants doubled, and it has continued to rise every year since.” Tim states. In the years 1996 through 2005 10% of our population was on antidepressant medications, this has “increased 22% from 2001-2010” states John McConnell (Ph. D psychologist and marriage and family counselor) These statistics shows just how much medication is given in our society, but doesn’t show how many of these individuals need it . John McConnell also states in his article “depression- An overmedicated Nation” “four of five prescriptions for emotional problems are written by physicians who are not psychiatrists”. Without an accurate diagnosis for depression, anxiety or other mental illnesses that affect a great part of our population, the percent of our population taking these medications are very high. It has been debated in previous studies that doctors use these medications as an answer to sadness, with pharmaceutical companies pushing these drugs towards doctors and many patients they are often given
In the article “Are we living in an overmedicated society” by Tim Stoddart has brought to attention how many people from our population have been put on medication, debating do they really …show more content…
“From 1996 to 2005, the number of prescribed antidepressants doubled, and it has continued to rise every year since.” Tim states. In the years 1996 through 2005 10% of our population was on antidepressant medications, this has “increased 22% from 2001-2010” states John McConnell (Ph. D psychologist and marriage and family counselor) These statistics shows just how much medication is given in our society, but doesn’t show how many of these individuals need it . John McConnell also states in his article “depression- An overmedicated Nation” “four of five prescriptions for emotional problems are written by physicians who are not psychiatrists”. Without an accurate diagnosis for depression, anxiety or other mental illnesses that affect a great part of our population, the percent of our population taking these medications are very high. It has been debated in previous studies that doctors use these medications as an answer to sadness, with pharmaceutical companies pushing these drugs towards doctors and many patients they are often given