This scaremongering about mental health is depressing

Reluctant as I am to publicly criticise fellow journalists, I am making an exception for your recent article ‘Depressing truth about treating depression in the young’ (Apr 3).

The story contains at least one factual inaccuracy (escitalopram is not a component of Lexapro, it is the generic name for Lexapro) and two points of ambiguity (escitalopram is available in 5mg doses, regardless of what doses your reporter was prescribed; Mirtazapine is a NaSSA-class drug, not an SSRI). The story showed a poor understanding of both the SSRI class of antidepressants and the psychotherapeutic methods used in the treatment of depression.

Ultimately, the problem is this: if you lie to a doctor, you will receive inappropriate treatment. This is not news.

All the story proved is that malingering works. A patient presenting with symptoms will be treated in line with these symptoms, and we cannot, and should not, ask doctors to act as judges.

Journalists in Ireland seem capable of covering mental-heath issues only as mawkish, subjective stories or scaremongering panics. Your piece was the latter and not terribly far from the former.

The result of its publication was an entire day of misinformed commentary on talk radio, contributing to a climate of fear around efficacious medication.

Jason Walsh

Dún Laoghaire

Co Dublin