how many irish are on antidepressants?

gerbox

Are there any statistics available as to how many people in ireland are on anti depressants or anti anxietys present day???

mallachyrivers

What has this got to do with psycho;ogy?

May44

too many.

The Black Oil

And what is your basis for that statement?

JuliusCaesar

May44 wrote: »

too many.

May44, if you continue to make assertions without a shred of evidence, you'll be banned. You've already had a warning. JC

Kooli

May44 wrote: »

too many.

I'm a psychologist and I would also say too many!

I don't doubt they sometimes have their place, and I've seen people do really well on them. But our current system (which medicalises psychological distress) sees GPs managing depression by prescribing as the first port of call, often before (or without ever) referring to talking therapies.

The evidence for antidepressants is not really that strong or clear-cut, particularly when compared to placebo and other things like exercise or counselling, with the added difficulty of really difficult side effects.

So I would say too many. I don't know if that's worthy of an infraction...

Odysseus

Kooli wrote: »

I'm a psychologist and I would also say too many!

I don't doubt they sometimes have their place, and I've seen people do really well on them. But our current system (which medicalises psychological distress) sees GPs managing depression by prescribing as the first port of call, often before (or without ever) referring to talking therapies.

The evidence for antidepressants is not really that strong or clear-cut, particularly when compared to placebo and other things like exercise or counselling, with the added difficulty of really difficult side effects.

So I would say too many. I don't know if that's worthy of an infraction...

No, but you know how to post a bout research etc, so why not post up some reviews etc. The medicalisation of psychological distress can be difficult, but what is the answer to issue. That is what I would like to see people rry come up.

Don't forget that it's not just medics, I get a lot of gp referrals, a significant amont of people want the quick fix that they think an ssri will give them. What I want to know about meds is will they facilitae a p;erson in attending myself for long enough for them too see the benefits of therapy.

What I do have a big problem with is those therapists who tell clients that they don't need to be on meds, the amount of times I encounter this one is significant. The worst thing that my experience of meeting these "therapists" is that their knowledge of any type of drug is poor.

But it does raise the bigger question of what type of intervention can we do around any type of drug not just anti-d's. Though [I'll leave it here] I think this can be left for another thread. I say this as someone who spends 8 hours a day in an addiction treatment clinic.

I think we can have an opinion on this as therapists, but we need to be very careful about how that opinion is imparted to the client, if one decides even to share it.