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The latest health ‘snapshot’ of the 33 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations has revealed that Australia is now the second-highest prescriber of anti-depressant medications.
Australian use of anti-depressants has doubled over the last decade – Iceland is the only country that has a higher rate of the use of the drugs – and several health experts say doctors are under pressure and over-prescribing.
Professor Philip Mitchell, the Head of the University of New South Wales School of Psychiatry, says it indicates that over-prescription of the drugs is now a problem in Australia.
Audio: Anti-depressant rates double in a decade (AM)
“This concerns me that this is too much. We know that for milder levels of depression that psychological treatment, psychological therapy [is] very effective, and in Australia we do have a system for this through the better-access scheme, so it surprises me that the rates are continuing to go up,” he said.
According to the report, the rates of anti-depressant prescriptions in Australia appear to have doubled between 2000 and 2011
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My youngest has been suffering from depression for a few years. 1000s spent on counselling, to no avail. He started on antidepressants a few months back, and has improved tremendously. It means we no longer worry about finding him on the end of a rope, or unconscious with a mouthful of pills. They, like ECT, can be lifesaving.
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BM, of course many serious cases of clinical depression need medication, but I’m against doctors prescribing them to all and sundry, just because you are upset because your cat has died or you lost some money or horses, or your kid dropped out from Uni…
Just because I don’t fee happy today, and I think it’s my birth right to feel happy every day… 🙂
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Helvi, in my cousin Terry’s experience, the GP was very thorough, referred him to a psychologist first – who determined that Terry had every reason to feel overwhelmed by his circumstances and was likely to suffer depression for years of difficulties that resisted resolution. But the psychologist also found that there was also a possibility that Terry was a bit bipolar and taking anti-depressants can be contraindicated in that case. So the psychologist referred Terry on to a psychiatrist, who determined that Terry’s “up episodes” were not very frequent nor long lasting in each instance, so the most likely situation WAS that Terry suffered clinical depression. So three professionals looked at him before he was prescribed an anti-depressant.
Terry told me that he does feel much better on his medication and that that in turn improves his talking therapy sessions – so he is winning twice.
Terry says that he doesn’t think many GPs over-prescribe anti-depressants because they usually need to be taken for at least a year before re-assessment and the drugs are not cheap. His psychiatrist said that more than three definite instances of clinical depression tends to support the view that this person will be taking anti-depressants for the rest of their lives. Terry has six monthly check-ups where the psychiatrist might decide to change the dose or the specific drug, depending on how Terry is going.
He said that the main reason that clinicians could tend to err on the side of caution (and prescribe) is that anti-depressants are the front line in preventing suicides – and Australia already has very high rates of suicide – especially amongst young males and men in rural communities.
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Your friend Terry is lucky to have a good doctor. Did you see tonight’s 7.30? Seraquel is a psychotic drug that many doctors prescribe for all kinds of ills,, as a sleeping tablet, for alcoholics, for anxiety,depression….it has major side effects.Amongst them, abnormal weight gain…
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Big M;
My brother has been medicated for most of his life. Without the tablets no-one could have coped with him. It is a miracle he is still alive.
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I have some friends who went through bad periods in life, they were put on antidepressants by their doctors, and started immediately to gain weight….off medication and back to normal weight…
So maybe all this is adding to the obesity epidemic…?
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I read about this in the SMH last night. Dead set I had a LOL moment as I thought of you, gerard.
Of course I followed the link and discovered *as expected) the bad outcomes weren’t too far behind the average. AND, as expected from a newspaper, they completely ignored the several areas where Australia had better outcomes than the average.
Here’s another interesting point (well interesting to me I don’t think it’ll bother you too much) Australia has a higher than average incidence of foreign bodies being left inside patients after surgery. But as the report points out this may be because Australia has a superior regime for monitoring and reporting such incidents.
These are points I try to make (and you ignore) regularly. One comparisons are fraught. Two The bad news might actually be good news. The apparent ‘bigger problem’ might actually be better awareness.
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Well, I can’t very well take on board the OECD figures and then do a complete reverse and figure that the real truth is the opposite. Ok, I give in; we are one of the lowest users of anti- depressant medication because when we take a lot it actually means we take very little.
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You never know, but it could be that the same number of people are twice as depressed as they used to be, i.e. taking more. Nearly everything I read about anti-depressants was that they hardly ever worked and more often than not made the person worse, not better. Be better off going to a good film or getting DVDs perhaps Some Like it Hot.
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I feel it is the lack of education of doctors and the decades of a pill happy society that is showing up in the numbers of over-prescriptions. Unless we are also the second highest in the un-happy scales, surely there is a problem of tackling symptoms rather than causes.
But…don’t get me going on the ills of acreages of isolated suburbs, soulless stillness of people-less streets, the long suffering by the young with aching loneliness, those sun blinding sheets of streets. (zinc alum) or there will be a second apology in the pipe line.
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I have for the last 6 months gone drug free (for a long time caffeine free). Not even a pain medication but once and not the least vitamin supplement, definitely rejecting Vitamin D after reflection on not knowing enough about the balance of it in that form.
It included stopping taking some medications previously deemed imperative. Not recommending (as I have no medical qualifications). It was also in consultation with a GP. Now I don’t deviate from basic unprocessed food.
My main motivation was to track some physical symptoms to try to determine what might be causing what …with tests now in the pipeline to make a raft of decisions regards whether this is a good idea. Meanwhile I lowered my cholesterol and increased bone density although reasons for that may include complex chemistry.
I have never been happier in the important degree I am calling the shots…for whatever the outcome taking my destiny back into my own hands out of an unhappy circumstance and relationship with the practice. Returned opened packets of medication and scripts to the chemist not wanting them lying around. The financial saving is noticeable. My mental health/happiness so improved I will only be sacrificing quality of life for a gamble with prolongation of it after deepest consideration of the test results and advice.
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Clap, clap (ovation). Good for you Shoe; Taking things in your own hand. Bravo!
Unless chronically ill,… that might well be the answer. Chuck the pills and often the feelings of ill health or depression might disappear as well.
One huge problem, I feel, is our quest for being ‘happy’ all the time. Happiness is enormously overrated in western society. Often this search for happiness is the real culprit. There has to be left room for feeling down and depressed sometimes, even if just in order to feel the opposite. It is part of our culture that pushes ‘happiness’ down our throats. It sure makes billions for the pharmaceutical companies.
When I switch on the TV and happen to inadvertently come across the mindless laughter on those silly mindless comedies, that’s when I get depressed. My answer is to quickly switch off. Peace and serenity returns immediately. A glass of wine helps…and lovely company
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Thank you, Gez for your encouragement.
I wonder why they ever made those programmes in the first place with those laughing machines or studio audiences goofing off in the background. Perhaps they sold seats to help towards the cost of the production.
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We have always had a love of pills and potions. Ever since those APC, Bex and Vincent’s headache ‘bars’ at the exits of the former Easter-Show exhibitions, I felt it was a bit over the top. I remember house-wives cosily sitting at those ‘bars’ downing those powders as if it was yesterday. The same in factories. There were coin operated slot machines which would dispense a phenacetin laced powder for tuppence.
If the myriad of medications sold over the counter which cannot be sold in many European countries without a prescription were included, we could well be number 1.
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Internet supply to be remembered as well, not that I know much about that supply and access. So many more pill cupboards opening up every day, Gez.
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