Courtesy of USA Today
The number of Americans using antidepressants doubled in only a decade, while the number seeing psychiatrists continued to fall, a study shows.
The number of Americans using antidepressants doubled in only a decade, while the number seeing psychiatrists continued to fall, a study shows.
About 10% of Americans — or 27 million people — were taking antidepressants in 2005, the last year for which data were available at the time the study was written. That's about twice the number in 1996, according to the study of nearly 50,000 children and adults in today's Archives of General Psychiatry. Yet the majority weren't being treated for depression. Half of those taking antidepressants used them for back pain, nerve pain, fatigue, sleep difficulties or other problems, the study says.
Among users of antidepressants, the percentage receiving psychotherapy fell from 31.5% to less than 20%, the study says. About 80% of patients were treated by doctors other than psychiatrists.
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