Anti-Depressant Use: Are We Overmedicated?

People in the United States take more antidepressants than people in any other country and in just a couple of years the World Health Organization predicts mental illness will be our number one disability.

But are we overmedicating ourselves and suffering from side effects like suicidal thoughts? We take a look at mental illness, a Carolina crisis.

They fill our medicine cabinets. They are antidepressants.
Paxil, Prozac or Zoloft, you've heard of them all.

We are a nation obsessed with them. By 2002 six percent of all children in this country were using antidepressants, that's according to the National Health Statistics. The CDC says between the years of 1994 and 2000 the number of adults in this country using antidepressants tripled.
So we asked, are we overmedicating ourselves?

Dr. Otis Baughman with Spartanburg regional says, "There are not enough people taking them for the right reasons and there are too many people taking them for the wrong reasons. Thinking that a pill will fix your personal and family problems is the fallacy. There's where people make the mistake."

Dr. Baughman says people also need counseling and physicians should watch their patients closely. One reason the possibility of suicidal thoughts.

It is hard to forget, Christopher Pittman in court after being convicted of killing his grandparents in Chester County when he was just 12 years old.
Pittman blames the antidepressant Zoloft saying it caused him to have suicidal thoughts and studies show it can happen in both teens and adults.

Dr. William Howell, head of the Spartanburg Mental Health Center, says " Some of the antidepressants may actually give them an energy boost the first few days. If they are really intent on killing themselves that could make it more of a risk."

Dr. Powell says he believes cases like this make it difficult for other people to get help.

He claims, "When that happens it is tragic and it gets lots of news coverage and then people run away from it and say antidepressants are dangerous."

In fact, the numbers show when cases like Christopher Pittman's happen and less antidepressants are prescribed and that creates even more problems.

Dr. Otis Baughman says, "Guess what's happened the suicide rate is going up for teenagers as the antidepressant prescribing is going down."

While Americans take the majority of the antidepressants, studies show the numbers are going up all over the world.
Again these doctors stress a pill will not solve all your problems and you should consider antidepressants only after you have been diagnosed by a physician. If you are prescribed antidepressants, the experts say you need to take them as directed and in conjunction with counseling.

For more information on antidepressants click on these links:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/datawh/nchsdefs/antidepressants.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/antidepressants.html
People in the United States take more antidepressants than people in any other country and in just a couple of years the World Health Organization predicts mental illness will be our number one disability.

But are we overmedicating ourselves and suffering from side effects like suicidal thoughts? We take a look at mental illness, a Carolina crisis.

They fill our medicine cabinets. They are antidepressants.
Paxil, Prozac or Zoloft, you've heard of them all.

We are a nation obsessed with them. By 2002 six percent of all children in this country were using antidepressants, that's according to the National Health Statistics. The CDC says between the years of 1994 and 2000 the number of adults in this country using antidepressants tripled.
So we asked, are we overmedicating ourselves?

Dr. Otis Baughman with Spartanburg regional says, "There are not enough people taking them for the right reasons and there are too many people taking them for the wrong reasons. Thinking that a pill will fix your personal and family problems is the fallacy. There's where people make the mistake."

Dr. Baughman says people also need counseling and physicians should watch their patients closely. One reason the possibility of suicidal thoughts.

It is hard to forget, Christopher Pittman in court after being convicted of killing his grandparents in Chester County when he was just 12 years old.
Pittman blames the antidepressant Zoloft saying it caused him to have suicidal thoughts and studies show it can happen in both teens and adults.

Dr. William Howell, head of the Spartanburg Mental Health Center, says " Some of the antidepressants may actually give them an energy boost the first few days. If they are really intent on killing themselves that could make it more of a risk."

Dr. Powell says he believes cases like this make it difficult for other people to get help.

He claims, "When that happens it is tragic and it gets lots of news coverage and then people run away from it and say antidepressants are dangerous."

In fact, the numbers show when cases like Christopher Pittman's happen and less antidepressants are prescribed and that creates even more problems.

Dr. Otis Baughman says, "Guess what's happened the suicide rate is going up for teenagers as the antidepressant prescribing is going down."

While Americans take the majority of the antidepressants, studies show the numbers are going up all over the world.
Again these doctors stress a pill will not solve all your problems and you should consider antidepressants only after you have been diagnosed by a physician. If you are prescribed antidepressants, the experts say you need to take them as directed and in conjunction with counseling.

For more information on antidepressants click on these links:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/datawh/nchsdefs/antidepressants.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/antidepressants.html