Antidepressant Use Rises

A new survey by Consumer Reports concludes that antidepressants are the preferred method to dealing with depression in the United States while the use of psychotherapy to deal with depression dropped from 32% to 19%.  Columbia University researchers report that around 27 million Americans, ages 6 and up, were using antidepressants by 2005: "Several factors may have contributed to this trend, including a broadening in concepts of need for mental health treatment, campaigns to promote mental health care and growing public acceptance of mental health treatments.... In parallel with growth in mental health service usage, psychotropic medications have become increasingly prominent in treatment."While the common recommendation for treatment of depression is a combination of therapy and medication, only 1 out of 5 seek the recommended form of help. 

There has been an enormous marketing push by the pharmaceutical companies which researchers are saying is responsible for the dramatic use of antidepressants.  Cymbalta and Pristique alone accounted for 300 million dollars in marketing campaigns in 2009.  Cymbalta and Pristique are the 2 most common known antidepressants amount households, even if the household is not using the medication.