Depression “Awareness” Campaigns = Increase in Antidepressant Rx Rates

In a 1996 study cited by Dr. Grace Jackson in her book, Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs, researchers discovered that an awareness campaign in the UK called “Defeat Depression” resulted in a significant increase in prescriptions for antidepressants, a change in physician practices of increased willingness to prescribe, and a large increase in agreement from the public that antidepressant drugs are effective and should be given to patients. Furthermore, to summarize from a follow-up study in 2001, researchers concluded that since there were still so many people who favored alternative treatments such as yoga, meditation and natural remedies over antidepressants, “further efforts to improve public knowledge about pharmacotherapy of mental disorders [were] needed.”

(Originally publicized just over a year ago in our March 3 Press Release, archived here.)

Filed under: antidepressants, mothers act, Defeat Depression, Depression Awareness Campaigns = More Antidepressants, Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs