Yes

by Lucius Trae

Created on: May 21, 2010

Yes, the pharmaceutical industry is trying to make money, and some doctors over-prescribe antidepressants. However, economic interests and cultural values play a strong role in the stigma around antidepressant use in children. There is an increase in suicide risk amongst children using antidepressants, but it can be monitored. Furthermore, refraining from treatment may be a suicide risk. The longer a depressed patient goes without help, the worse their symptoms can become.

There are a minority of people in the medical community who think depression is not a medical illness, but this view is less and less common amongst those directly working with mental illnesses. Although therapy and medication are both methods of treating depression, they don't always work for everyone. Some people don't benefit from medication, and other people don't benefit from therapy. Regardless, the data on treating depression states that the combination of therapy and medication is most effective for the majority of patients. In high school, I was surrounded by a loving family, friends, and been making straight A's. I was still miserable. Sometimes depression needs medical treatment. The scientific evidence strongly supports this conclusion.

As I mentioned, people focus on how the pharmaceutical company wants to make money. That's true, but doctors want to make money, insurance companies want to make money. Who doesn't try to make money these days? That said, we rarely assume our doctors are giving us fake advice. They don't say "Oh, this patient has cancer but let's wait a little longer so we can give them the more costly treatment." People have been reading some strange horror novels if they believe that. An who are more cutthroat than the insurance companies who do anything they can to avoid having to pay. If they make a home visit, do you keep a close watch? Maybe they decide to knock out an important support beam so your house won't be covered due to "poor upkeep." No, most people aren't diabolical fiends. There are people in every profession that are unscrupulous. The average doctor has their patient in mind when considering prescriptions.

The Church of Scientology is one of the sneakiest religions today. Believe it or not, there is a lot of money in the Church because of powerful members like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and it cons members into paying for services often over $200,000. As a Church opposed to psychiatry, it regularly spreads unfounded information on the Internet. You can hardly search for information about psychiatry on Youtube, for instance, without finding criticism. It's almost all from Scientologist members.

Those with mental health disorders are in a vulnerable state.Scientology exploits these people to gain membership and money, and having these people receive treatment works against their goals. For instance, Lisa McPherson suffered a car accident and hospital staff wanted to have her to receive psychological care. The Church said she doesn't believe in psychiatry, and she left. She soon had a mental brake, and the Church engaged in its practices that prescribe isolation. She died because she was encouraged to leave rather than receive proper medical care.

Furthermore, medications need to pass certain tests to be allowed for sale. Contrastingly, supplements, herbal, and "alternative" treatments are readily available and sold at inflated costs. While some of them can help with depression, doctors are quite aware of alternative treatments and sometimes prescribe them. That said, many of the critics of antidepressants are those selling or using alternative therapies. Placebo effects allow people to get better from depression when their treatment doesn't work. This doesn't occur for everyone, but it happens with antidepressants and alternative remedies. Many of the people fighting antidepressant use are selling supplements that have been tested and shown to do nothing for depression.

When I was a child, I had depression and was referred to a psychiatrist. My mother was a nurse, and she was quite reluctant to put me on a medication. I ended up on Wellbutrin due to the recommendation of my psychiatrist. I stopped taking it a few years later, but I've continued to have issues with depression and am taking it again (alongside other medications). I can confidently say my life would have been significantly worse had I not been put on medication as a child.

Not every cause of depression requires medication, but sometimes prescribing antidepressants to children is the best option. There is a reason the medical community is in charge of prescriptions. They know the pros and cons more than anyone, and they are impartial. A parent will probably not have the same knowledge to draw from, and they're certainly not impartial. Psychologically, humans are opposed to risks even in cases where taking a chance is the logical conclusion. Don't ignore an entire method of treatment because of the bad cases you hear about. You don't hear about good cases because the patients are too busy writing articles on Helium.

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