Depression is 'over-diagnosed'

Depression is 'over-diagnosed'

news.bbc.co.uk

Too many people are being diagnosed with depression when all they are is unhappy, a leading psychiatrist says.

Professor Gordon Parker claims the threshold for clinical depression is too low and risks treating normal emotional states as illness.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, he calls depression a "catch-all" diagnosis driven by clever marketing.

(visit the link for the full news article)

i've seen a lot of this in the news lately - not just depression, but also obesity.
But the over prescribing of adhd/add drug ritalin goes overlooked for the most part.

The story also contains a link to an older article about over prescribed anti depressants:
news.bbc.co.uk...
and over prescribed for children too, which is more worrying, given that children are more likely to suffer side effects:
news.bbc.co.uk...





news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

The SSRIs are notorious for causing weight gain on average of about 18 pounds.

General practitioners prescribe most psychiatric drugs and probably just to shut patients up and get them out of the office.

Once prescribed, people tend to keep taking them and MDs readily refill prescriptions.

I think there's a link, but I can't prove it.

reply to post by GradyPhilpott


What the heck are SSRIs?

reply to post by thehumbleone



en.wikipedia.org...

Here's a good summary of the class of anti-depressants known as SSRIs.

Here's an article about SSRIs and weight gain.

www.depression-guide.com...


[edit on 2007/8/19 by GradyPhilpott]

SSRI's are Selective Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitors.
They regulate the seratonin levels in the brain - screwy seratonoin levels are one of the causes of depression.
www.healthyplace.com...

and this from the same page:

There is evidence of increased suicidal thoughts and behaviors and other side effects in young people taking antidepressants. So SSRI antidepressants, with the exception of Prozac, are not approved by the FDA for use in people under 18.

In fact, in 2004, the FDA ordered the strongest safety warning possible:

Antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders. Anyone considering the use of [Drug Name] or any other antidepressant in a child or adolescent must balance this risk with the clinical need.

This one backs up what Grady was saying:
www.netnutritionist.com...

personally speaking, I gained about 20 pounds using mirtazipine, but I also stopped taking them as soon as possible.
Once you get serotonin "equalized" there are better natural chemicals produced by your body - "happy hormones" that you get from exercise, even just a brisk walk will release endorphins.
And having a good, healthy balanced diet will help as well, once you are over the initial depressive symptoms.

[edit on 20/8/2007 by budski]

Are these things really over diagnosed or are people becommming so well informed, through the net, that they can walk in to an MD's office and roll off a list of symptoms that they think they have because they read all about it on-line and sure that's me. That's what I have. I feel that way all the time.

I friend of mine got signed off from work for two weeks with what the MD called stress. Load of old codswollop! He'd just moved house and didn't have any holiday time left to use for decorating and buying curtains and stuff like that!

The only thing that isn't being over diagnosed is hypercondria (spl!)

MonKey

Originally posted by ChiKeyMonKey
Are these things really over diagnosed or are people becommming so well informed, through the net, that they can walk in to an MD's office and roll off a list of symptoms that they think they have because they read all about it on-line and sure that's me. That's what I have. I feel that way all the time.

I friend of mine got signed off from work for two weeks with what the MD called stress. Load of old codswollop! He'd just moved house and didn't have any holiday time left to use for decorating and buying curtains and stuff like that!

The only thing that isn't being over diagnosed is hypercondria (spl!)

MonKey

It's a fair point, simply because any social welfare system will always be open to abuse by unscrupulous people.

I'd suggest though, that GP's are simply getting better at diagnosing it - although any diagnosis by a GP should be seconded by a qualified mental healthcare professional.

I think there could be several reasons for this:

I think a lot of this goes back to childhood psychology.

First, let me start off by saying that people may feel they are legititamely depressed, whether they are or not. They don't have an emotional guideline, or emotional intelligence,so they don't know which way is up when it comes to wellbeing.
They can't tell a blue day from depression.
As a long time sufferer of depression and a spuuse who is bipolar, I can tell the difference, but many can't. Depression is long term and debilatating. You can even gather the courage to make a phone call or function. Adn you can't just snap out of it.

Emotional disturbances are dictated by the time a child is age five. How you are going to react, think, feel, is permenantly imprinted for life. An adult can change it, but it is a herculian task not for the weak minded. Since many behaviors imprint the neurons by the time a child is five, it is hard to break. That is why adults have a harder time learning a language, because schools usually wait till high school to teach it, when it should begin in pre-school.

Even the most well intentioned parent can make their child socially defunct. Either by being an overly doting parent or by not being emotionally involved at all. Not only can this lead to depression, but narcissistic personality disorders and others. It can be from parents who are emotionally withdrawn, as in the case of over militant fathers, or emotionally withdrawn parents in post partom depression, or if the parent is sick.And it only takes one parent to be emotionally defunct themselves.Especially in America, parents are usualy too busy working, are too overbearing, or have the old school method of letting children cry, act as if they are born criminals to be whipped into shape, and every bit of the child's life is to brought to independance, not comfort, stability, and love. Nothing makes me cringe more then to hear a parent sleep train a child at 2 months old. I have heard of a parents recently that believe in forcing children to sleep at certain times, like 1-4. Even if the child needs comfort, they let them scream for hours.Meanwhile, a child under the age of one doesn't even know they are a separate being from their parent. And parents will leave them alone for hours on end, not pick them up, all for the sake that the child doesn't get too "attached".
In the case of an over-adoring parent, all they do is try to make their child"happy" bribing them with food, they feel a child shouldn't be "sad". In either case, the parents are dismissive of their kids feelings. A child is sad, and basically told that it is an emotion they shouldn't have, but they do have it. They feel dismissed, even if the well intentioned parent is just trying to make them happy. So they are left feeling very confused, and never learn what the sadness is and how to handle it properly.The children don't learn how to identify their feelings, how to solve them, and how to handle them. Just leaving them in an in-capable chaotic mess.There is a wonderful book, that even adults can read for insight into their own problems, called"How to Raise an Emotionally Intelligent Child". Every parent should be required to read it.
Depression should be taken seriously. Constant untreated depression can lead to bi-polar disorder, which is a very serious mental illness. Those who suffer from bp have an 80% divorce rate, and one in five commit suicide. Because their depression becomes so overwhelming that they can no longer function.

So I think that is why docs are willing to treat it so easily. If it is indeed depression, it can lead to much more serious problems. And bP can't be cured, just maintained.

People who don't understand true depression, can't understand what it is like.While yes, I think there are a lot of truley depressed people, some people just don't know what is wrong, that it may be low self-esteem, just a normal low in life, etc. Especially those who are alway's conditioned to be "happy". Or if they were sad as a child, it was dismissed.
I even witnessed it in my own home. My FIL, who is a very stoic emotionless rock with a military parents, started calling my son a cry-baby at 9 months old!! A 9 month old! A couple more times of this and I nipped it in the bud. These kind of comments are very damaging. I have been called a crybaby as an adult by someone who "loved" me, and it hurt. I can only imagine what what it does to a child. Then boys are not supposed to show any emotion at all. They only acceptable emotion is anger.

This brings me to the third reason. I think that men today are encouraged a little more(not 100%) just a little, to actually be allowed to seek help, let their gaurd down a little, to be able to show a little more emotion, the metrosexual if you will,so they are more likely to seek treatment then before.

I was reading an article recently about pain. How so many professional athletes and those with military careers end up suffering from chronic pain from injuries and overuse of their bodies.
Before, they had to suck it up and be men. But in recent years, they have decided that seeking treatment is better then suffering, and they are seeking it. So there has been a spike in the number of men seeking treatment for pain. And good thing too. What they are finding is that if pain is treated, and treated hard right away, instead of doctors nicke and dimeing the drugs, there is less chance that it will become chronic. Again, chronic pain is when the neurons are set into a permenant path in the brain, so if the pain is left untreated, it keeps using the same pathways until they become perm. and leaving the person with chronic pain.

Last but not least, the brain runs on chemicals. There are so many chemicals dumped into our environment and food, that we have around our home.(fabric softener should be illegal) that it is bound to interact with the chemical highway in our brains. It has to affect us.