It’s Official: Depressed Patients Receive Antidepressants.
The results are in… patients suffering from depression will probably be treated with an antidepressant medication at some point. This groundbreaking revelation (which ultimately is a surprise to nobody) was uncovered in a recent survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.
The results concluded that over 78% of people who actively request treatment for acute or long term depression will be prescribed a pharmaceutical drug, such as Celexa, Prozac, or Zoloft (to name just a few) – and many of these drugs have contributed to higher costs for prescription health plans.
But after digging away at the results and delving slightly deeper in to the data, more profound findings come to light. For example, only 50% of patients taking an antidepressant medication (both the older SSRI range and the newer SNRI drugs) were willing to admit that the pills were helping them to feel better.
A look at the negative aspects of antidepressants.
Contrast this to the staggering 91% of people who reported that non-pharmaceutical treatment options, such as counselling, were vastly improving their condition – and you certainly have an interesting dilemma.
Are Antidepressants Worth The Cost or The Risk?
In 2009, almost $10 billion worth of antidepressants were prescribed to depressed patients – up 3.0% from a year earlier. With a success rate of just 50%, however, that means that five billion dollars literally went up in smoke.
And the results don’t stop there. Older medications (SSRI’s) scored a 53% combined treatment success rate, whilst the newer medications (SNRI’s) lagged behind with just 49% – worse than the toss of a coin.
Finally, adverse side effects were experienced by up to 36% of users, which surely begs the question – are antidepressants really worth the cost, risk, or hassle?
