Los Angeles Times (August 3, 2009) -- Many Americans are clinically depressed, but are we undertreated or overtreated? Reality might not match the headlines.
Some 16% of adults in the United States have met the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder at some point in their lives. Such rates have not really changed over the last few decades, according to studies -- but rates of treatment have risen dramatically.
Doctors say the wider recognition of depression as a chronic, recurring disease has helped people in need get necessary and helpful treatment. Better insurance coverage of mental health services and the explosion of new medications for depression since the introduction of Prozac in 1987 have helped fuel the rise in treatment rates.
And yet a wave of concern persists about overdiagnosis and overtreatment of depression. Has easy treatment in the form of a pill led to frivolous prescribing habits?
By Jill U. Adams
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