Treating depression - Drugs too prevalent in our system

AT the end of 2009 1,478,560 people were entitled to hold a medical card.

This represents something around a third of the population. During that year alone, more than five million prescriptions for anti-depressants, sleeping tablets or medication to help relieve anxiety were written for this group.

If demand for these medicines is as high among the rest of the population, that could represent something over 15 million prescriptions aimed at helping people recover emotional or mental stability in just one year.

If we are to be realistic, it is more than likely that these figures have risen in the intervening years, as so many lives, so many people’s idea of their own self- worth, have been challenged by deteriorating economic circumstances.

For such a small country with such a moderate population — 4.6 million — this is a disturbing picture, one describing deep and widespread pain and anxiety, managed only by the liberal use of powerful medication. A huge, possibly disproportionate, chemical response to the most human of human conditions.

This picture is exacerbated by the findings of a survey earlier this year which showed that two-in-five people would not want to get involved if someone close to them was fighting depression. This cold-hearted dismissal came even though the respondents knew that talking about the problem is a very important first step towards a recovery.

Amazingly, the 2011 Mental Health Barometer also recorded that almost a quarter of people still think depression is a state of mind rather than an illness.

Nearly half — 49% — said they would want to know if someone close to them was suffering from depression but 42% said they would not want to know. The figure for younger people is even more disheartening with just 37% of under 25s saying they would want to know.

These figures are very disturbing because, as everyone knows, untreated depression is at the root of so many of the suicides causing so much heartbreak right across this country. A kind word, even a few moment’s concern and support from a friend, can be as effective and more welcome than even the most powerful medication.

We are using medication liberally in the place of a far simpler, more human response to these terribly debilitating illnesses. Basil Miller of the Wellbeing Foundation charges that anti-depressants are grossly over-prescribed. The foundation also argues that drugs are being used because more effective one-on-one therapies — the talking cure, as it is known in the trade — are so very expensive.

Recent revelations about the people we have looked to for guidance show that we, as a country, have not been good at looking in the mirror and being honest. These figures suggest this is another area where we have avoided core issues, pretending that we had done all we could. Now we know better.

We should be far more open to supporting a person struggling with these terrible but natural difficulties, we should not rely on blunderbuss medication to lift the darkness in the soul of so many. We must find a better, more humane way to counteract this epidemic.