Nearly 1 in 10 people aged 12 and up take an antidepressant medication, according to a report by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Antidepressant use has jumped 400 percent in the past 20 years. America is drugged up and depressed. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
@WiL
In fact, the rate of antidepressant use to treat depression or anxiety has jumped nearly 400 percent in the past 20 years.
Nearly a quarter of American women aged 40 to 59 take antidepressants, more than in any other age and sex group.
It’s not just older women — Drugs to combat depression are the third most common prescription drug taken by Americans by those aged 18 to 44, according to data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, per HealthDay.
A stunning 14% of white people take antidepressants, compared with 4 percent of blacks and 3 percent of Mexican Americans.
The researchers found no association between income and antidepressant use.
What’s worrisome, according to the researchers, is that a third of the people who take antidepressant medication haven’t seen a medical health care professional in the past year.
Less than half of those taking multiple antidepressants had seen a mental health professional in the past year.
Women are two and a half times as likely to take antidepressant medication as males.
