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Antidepressant use is on the rise, as non-psychiatrists are increasingly prescribing the medications for conditions other than mental illness, according to HealthDay.
A recent study published in this month’s Health Affairs has found that many people are taking antidepressants like Lexapro, Paxil and Prozac for a number of other reasons besides a mental health diagnosis, making them the third most popularly prescribed drugs in the country. Researchers voiced concerns over whether doctors and their patients are aware of the risks that could come with use of a medication outside of its intended purpose.
“Both consumers and prescribers of antidepressants should be more knowledgeable about the indications (or symptoms) that antidepressants are better for,” Dr. Ramin Mojtabai, one of the study’s authors and associate professor of psychiatry at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the news source. More than 10 percent of Americans currently take antidepressants, which he attributes to coping with the stresses of life. The doctor warns that there could be consequences in the long run that patients and their caregivers should take into consideration, such as withdrawal.
“Although these drugs do not have many acute side effects, there may be more long-term adverse effects. Pharmaceutical companies aren’t interested in long-term effects because they don’t need that for FDA approval,” Mojtabai told HealthDay.
The health records of more than 233,000 people from 1996 to 2007 were examined in the study. The data revealed a jump from 4 to 9 percent in the number of prescriptions written for antidepressants by non-psychiatrists, with 6.4 percent of patients suffering from a non-mental illness. Prescriptions for persons with a mental health diagnosis, such as depression, increased by 44 percent, reports the news provider.
Many of the individuals who used antidepressants during this time period without a mental health condition suffered from diabetes or heart disease, or complained of insomnia, sexual dysfunction and other issues.
