Over 110,000 US forces used psychotropic meds in 2011: Report

PressTV – Over 110,000 US forces used psychotropic meds in 2011: Report.

More than 110,000 active-duty American Army forces were on prescribed antidepressants, sedatives and other prescription medications in 2011. (File photo)

Mon Apr 9, 2012 6:14AM GMT

We have never medicated our troops to the extent we are doing now…. And I don’t believe the current increase in suicides and homicides in the military is a coincidence.”

Former military psychologist Bart Billings

A recent report says that more than 110,000 active-duty US Army forces were on prescribed antidepressants, sedatives and other prescribed medication in 2011, which reflects an eight-fold increase from 2005.

According to an article published by the Los Angeles Times, more than 110,000 active-duty Army troops last year were taking prescribed antidepressants, narcotics, sedatives, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety drugs.

“We have never medicated our troops to the extent we are doing now…. And I don’t believe the current increase in suicides and homicides in the military is a coincidence,” said Bart Billings, a former military psychologist.

Last year, US pilot Patrick Burke, who had been taking a tablet of Dexedrine every four hours while flying a B-1 bomber across nine time zones, beat one of his friends after landing and crashed a stolen car into guardrails.

Burke was charged with auto theft, drunk driving and two counts of assault. Four military psychiatrists, however, concluded that the young lieutenant suffered from “polysubstance-induced delirium” caused by alcohol, lack of sleep and the 40 milligrams of Dexedrine.

US military officials claim that the use of drugs in the army is comparable to that by the civilians.

However, psychiatrists and lawyers, who blame the heavy use of psychotropic drugs for their clients’ aberrant behavior and related health problems, believe otherwise, attributing the abnormal conduct to harsh conditions imposed on the soldiers in the US-led wars.

MYA/GHN/HJL

Related articles

• A fog of drugs and war (stripes.com)
• Psychotropic Medications Increase Cardiac Death (ultimo167.wordpress.com)

Antidepressant use in England soars (same in the Americas)

Antidepressant use in England soars | Society | The Guardian.

• Prescriptions rise by more than a quarter in three years
• Depression costing economy nearly £11bn a year
• Financial uncertainty thought to be factor

Prescriptions for antidepressants such as Prozac have increased from 34m in 2007-08 to 43.4m in 2010-11. Photograph: Najlah Feanny/Corbis

The use of antidepressants has risen by more than a quarter in England in just three years, amid fears that more people are suffering from depression due to the economic crisis.

The number of prescriptions for antidepressants increased by 28% from 34m in 2007-08 to 43.4m in 2010-11, according to the NHS information centre.

Depression is also costing the economy nearly £11bn a year in lost earnings, NHS care and drug prescriptions.

Research by the House of Commons found the cost to the NHS of treating the illness is more than £520m a year.

People who are unable to work due to depression lose £8.97bn of potential earnings a year, while the loss of earnings from suicide is put at £1.47bn.

Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat MP who commissioned the research, told the Independent: “Failure to tackle depression hurts us all. It makes a misery of the lives of sufferers, costs the NHS in time and medication, and hampers business by forcing some people out of work.”

Prescriptions for anti-anxiety drugs rose from just over 6m to 6.5m in the same period, an 8% jump, while prescriptions for sleeping pills rose 3% from around 9.9m to 10.2m.

The research found the north-west had the highest antidepressant use in 2010-11, with 7.2m prescriptions dispensed.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said the tough economic times may have contributed to more people experiencing depression, but improved public awareness may also mean more people are seeking help.

“It’s important to remember that antidepressants can be a lifeline for some people which enable them to manage their mental health problems,” he said.

Emer O’Neill, chief executive of Depression Alliance, said: “These uncertain economic times are linked to an increase in the number of people with the illness.”

Related articles

• Antidepressants Found to Worsen Depression (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
• 400% Rise in Anti-Depressant Pill Use: Americans Are Disempowered – Can the OWS Uprising Shake Us Out of Our Depression? (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)

Do We Take Too Many Pills?

Why sleep alone is not enough–and how to reset your body.

by Matthew Edlund, M.D.

Is there a pill for every problem – or problem pills?

Published on November 25, 2011 by Matthew J. Edlund, M.D. in The Power of Rest

Who’s Using What?Consider these facts:

According to the government, 20% of American adults have abused prescription drugs – ingesting drugs for other than therapeutic purposes.
Perhaps one in four teenagers are abusing prescription drugs.
30% of adult women are using a sleeping pill at least a few nights a week
Eleven percent of Americans were taking anti-depressants by 2005 (it’s higher now)
Overdoses among toddlers have increased by 30% in the last decade
Even the government wonders if we’re the most pill happy population on earth.
We’re probably not – lots of other countries, like France, are pill loving. But the data are looking worse. Insurance companies don’t like to release such information, but executives tell me young working women have doubled and tripled use of sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs in the last four years.

Why We Like Pills

1. Pills are quick. You take them and feel the results, generally within minutes to hours.
2. Pills are easy. Water and a functioning GI tract is generally all that’s required for them to work.
3. Pill advertising is ubiquitous and relentless – estimates are about $5 billion a year for prescription pills alone.
4. Changes in academic medicine made pharmaceutical companies major payers and engines of research – and large sources of income for many physicians in and outside universities.
5. Payment schedules for doctors which make it easiest and often more lucrative to hand out a pill than give advice or suggest self-empowering treatments.
6. High payments to drug companies in the US versus other nations made it logical to spend huge marketing and advertising budgets here.
7. A practical nation likes technological fixes.
8. The economic depression among working people. Real unemployment is closer to 20% than 10%, people can’t afford their homes, offspring can’t find work. Pills have been sold as a quick way to relieve and control stress.
9. No time. Trying to take care of kids, work two part time jobs, travel to elderly parents or playdates means that quick solutions are required.
Ways to Fix the Pharmaceutical Fix

A. Make Health, not health care, a mantra of policy. Americans imagine health comes out of a pill bottle or a medical device rather than from what they control themselves. The greatest effects on health came from nutrition, sanitation, and and then physical activity and rest. An every day fifteen minute walk by all able adults might do more for the public health than hundreds of billions in further health care dollars.

B. There’s no need for public drug advertising. Television ads showing happy people popping pills with lists of side effects that stretch to Antarctica does not serve the public health. A healthy economy requires a healthy population, not an overmedicated one.
Despite Medicare Part B’s near blank check to pharmaceutical companies, the public should be made aware of what drugs cost in the US versus other countries. There is no reason American governmental agencies or insurance companies should pay more for drugs than German or British ones, despite what their lobbyists tell Congress (they used to say higher profits in the US were necessary to pay for their research – if so, look at where the money went over the last two decades and weep. )
C. University docs should not be paid shills for pharmaceutical companies.
D. Overall societal costs should decrease if the government becomes more active in clinical trials to determine efficacy of common, expensive treatments. Relying on company data is not sufficient, as companies have great incentive to be highly selective in what they produce.

We’re 49th!

According to the CIA, the US ranks 49th in mortality with a health care system that’s twice as expensive as most developed countries.

Pills are a growing part of that expense. We’re not getting our money’s worth.

Weaning the public off pills for most every ill will not be simple. But there’s no reason we need to spend money pointlessly.

Public health projects are more deserving – and much cheaper.