Antidepressants:Treatment or Legal Drug

Culture?

By Andri Tai-Ward

INTro: Key Words

• Antidepressants - any form of psychiatric drug used to alleviate the symptoms of depression.

• Depression – commonly used to describe a temporary mood of “feeling blue”. Symptoms are often fleeting and will pass within a few days.

• Clinical Depression – more than just sadness; a severe yet common psychiatric disorder which interferes with daily life, normal functioning, and causes pain for both the sufferer and those who are close to them.

Intro: Context & History

• No single known cause to depression; combination of genetic, biochemical, environmental, and psychological factors.

• Many different antidepressants: Zoloft, Celexa, Prozac, and Paxil are all prescribed to treat clinical depression.

• Can significantly and positively treat symptoms of depression for many people but can also worsen depression, especially when prescribed when not really needed.

• Harmful side effects include insomnia, anxiety, restlessness, loss of libido.

Assignment Instructions• Analyze the usage of antidepressants and

the image it receives. Write an essay in which you describe what the most important aspects and symptoms doctors should be aware of when prescribing antidepressants. What should be considered critical and what should be cured with a more natural remedy? Should the usage of antidepressants be examined more carefully?

Overview of Sources• Source A - signs and symptoms of depression from

medical dictionary.• Source B - New York Times article on the possible

link between youth suicide rates and antidepressants.• Source C - Article about using antidepressants to

medicate unhappiness.• Source D - Cartoon parodying the practice of

prescribing antidepressants.• Source E - Article criticizing the frequent prescription

of antidepressants as a “legal drug culture”.• Source F - Graph showing how significantly

antidepressant drug prescriptions have risen from ‘91 - ‘01.

Position & Arguments• Doctors treating patients suffering from

depression should consider and exhaust all other therapeutic options before resorting to antidepressants.

• The over-prescription of antidepressants has created a “legal drug culture” that fails to reach the root causes of depression and masks symptoms instead of curing.

• Complement usage of antidepressants with therapy, closely monitor signs and symptoms, and come to terms with the fact that feeling sad and feeling depressed, occasionally, are perfectly normal.

The Other Side …

• Antidepressants should be prescribed to patients with depression only when they present symptoms of major depressive disorders anyway.

• “Quick and easy” method to alleviate the symptoms of depression; antidepressants aren’t meant to “cure” depression.

• “Since 1986, Prozac has helped 54 million people,” (http://www.prozac.com).

Debate, Argue, Discuss:• Read the role sheet that you have picked.

• Write/develop an argument/position for/against/qualifying the use of antidepressants based on your role and the information given.

• Each person will summarize their role and read their position, and a mini-debate will follow based on the following questions.

DEBATE QUESTIONS• Do we have a “legal drug culture” and a

“medicalization of unhappiness”? What implications do these hold for our society and the people who are on and need antidepressants?

• Who do we know we can trust when it comes to our health? Who can really decide what is the best treatment option? When severely depressed, does that person forfeit the right to decide what’s best?

• What has changed in our society that accounts for the rapid increase in the prescription of antidepressants? What does the future hold?