Are we a pill based society? Do we over-prescribe? Should depression be treated with drugs?

Absolutely. To all three questions. Yes, we are a pill-based society, and we use pills for everything. Yes, pills are over-prescribed. If you go to the doctor for anything, be it strange lumps, broken legs, a rash, or even excessive sweating, there's almost always some sort of pill that gets prescribed. When I was little, I was diagnosed with ADHD (like ADD, but worse because I was like, twice as hyper), and the doctors wanted to put me on Ritalin, or whatever it was, but my parents said no. They found a clinic a few hours away that specialized in helping ADD children learn to work around the disorder. For lack of a better word, they cured it. There were no drugs. They only did one thing: they taught me how to settle down and concentrate. I've been perfectly normal ever since, and rather than getting stuck taking a pill for the rest of my life, my ADD is nonexistent.
As for depression, a close relative of mine has it, and yes, the pills work. My opinion is that they don't work just by themselves, though. They help, but in the case of depression, a lifestyle change is needed as well.
So my opinion is that yes pills can be a good thing, and they save lives, but they are overused. (I.E., one pill that really cracked me up was a pill to get rid of itchy eyes- just itchy eyes, no other allergy symptoms- and listed among the side effects was 'itchy eyes'. XDXD)

In medical terms, we are a pill-based society. Then again, don't we have to be? Modern medicine has advanced beyond herbal remedies- nowadays, what is commonly trusted has become pills and drugs administered through IV drips rather than unnecessary amputations and shamans like medicine once consisted of. I do think we accredit too much to medicine and overuse drugs, to some extent- through having an autistic brother, I've seen that medicine can't solve everything. Doctors put him on a myriad of different drugs (I've read about this in other autistic children, as well), but in the end all it came down to was providing the proper environment and figuring out what worked for him. Medicine can't solve everything- I often think that doctors pay too much attention to the physical and not enough to the mental.

Should depression be treated with drugs... in some cases. Depression has been to known to create chemical imbalances in the brain which can be solved by using drugs, but some severe cases of depression can't be fixed with a few pills. Drugs can be of assistance, definitely, but they don't solve everything. Sometimes the depressed person him/herself and those around him/her will have to work at overcoming the depression because drugs won't make it magically disappear. Your mind has to work in synchronization with what the drugs are doing- you have to help yourself.

I commend what doctors and researchers have done with modern medicine, but there's more to it. You can soothe the sicknesses and you can heal the wounds, but the hardest things to treat and the deepest scars are the ones on the inside, not the outside.

As a sufferer of severe, chronic depression I say yes sometimes medication needs to be prescribed. They aren't the only answer and should be used in conjunction with therapy but the therapy isn't going to work unless your mind is at a level where it will accept the changes.

I'd been in therapy for many years before trying medications, and it's made such a difference.

Yes, many medications are over prescribed. Like giving a kid ADD meds just because they play up in school.

I think we are, and I certainly think that many drugs are over-prescribed. To me, it seems as though drugs are becoming a panacea and people are forgetting that they are not everything.

Obviously I'm generalising, but I think that even where drug treatment is essential, for most conditions the well-being of the patient is going to be much better if other approaches are used as well- whether it be something like teaching concentration techniques to a child with ADD/ADHD as BusterBrown has related or providing relaxation and distraction to someone with a terminal illness.

In some cases, drugs are an absolutely necessity- I'm on various pain-killers and other drugs, and without them I wouldn't make it through the day. But they form only part of my treatment- I have physiotherapy, I use relaxation techniques, I distract myself with work, with study, etc.

It's the over-prescription of drugs like antibiotics that bothers me- I had a bad cold a couple of months back- I would have let run its course but had to go to the doctor because I needed a medical certificate- she tried to prescribe me antibiotics for a cold, telling me they'd make me feel better in a couple of days...so obviously she wasn't thinking of secondary infection, she was trying to treat my virus with antibiotics *tears hair out* I won't even start on the number of kids round here who seem to be on ritalin

Drug treatment for depression is certainly appropriate in some cases, but it falls into what I've already said above- drug therapy alone is rarely the answer.

I guess we are a pill basaed society... I take pills frequently but only essential oils. I guess my point is they are making EVERYTHING into pills now

Also i think things like hayfever tablets and asprin are just part of everyday life now.

(p.s. did you know oil of oregano is great for blocked noses?)

While modern medicine certainly is bringing us great things, everything comes with a price. Pills are definitely becoming a cop-out in today's society, especially with psychological disorders. Sometimes they are necessary, yes, but even then they should be used with therapy and natural methods. I haven't gotten sick with anything more traumatic than a stomach flu, but I KNOW that herbal remedies treat the small things much better than cough syrup. I remember it as a child, my parents always made me take it and it did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I dunno about anyone else, but it did nothing for me. Now, when I have a cold, spicy food cures my congestion!

I heard a statistic that 94% of doctors take bribes from medicine companies. While statistics can be misleading, it sounds really plausible. It's a scary thought, too. I don't want to have some pill shoved down my throat because some corrupted doctor gets a free trip to Miami.

I'm not experienced in mental disorders, but I think a lot of cases of ADD and ADHD can be treated with some teaching for the child and a check of the child's diet. If the kid is eating sugar 24/7, how's he gonna act? Drugs should be one of the last resorts, not the first.

The one thing to me that seems to stand out is that everybody and his dog seems to now be diagnosed with ADD/ADHD or some other attention/hyper-active disorder. Honestly, I think it can be linked to the diet.

Kids today consume so much more sugar than ever before. Coincidence? I think not. I remember watching this television special about eating habits. They had this British family change their diet for a month and see how different their lives became. There were two children, and the oldest (a boy of about 8) had been a holy terror before - bouncing off the walls and screaming and being extremely moody. Their diet before consisted of lots of sugar - sugary cereal for breakfast, packaged food for lunch and snacks, then fast food or packaged garbage for supper. The main point of this special was to help the family get into a healthier lifestyle, but this boy's personality changed immensely. He was calmer, happier and more kind to his sibling and parents. I think it's because he was consuming so much less sugar that he had before - natural sugar from fruit and juice and the occasional treat were basically all the sugars he consumed for that month - and his behaviour did an absolute 180.

Certainly, there are children that do have ADD/ADHD, but I think that sugar should be taken out of the diet (or sugar consumption should at least be significantly reduced) before Ritalin or some other drug is prescribed.

Colds, too, are things that people treat with drugs that they should not be. I've never had a doctor that's prescribed antibiotics for a cold, but a sore throat? Yup. There are also products out there (DayQuil, NyQuil etc.) that are for colds and flu which people take, but they don't really need. A cold is a virus that can't be treated with drugs - those medicines just mask the symptoms, they don't actually cure them. I find that going for a walk really makes me feel better if I am congested - no drugs necessary.

As for depression - I think that this is one where drugs may be over-prescribed, but it's probably better to prescribe drugs than to not do so, and have the person get worse. Therapy should always be tried first though. I suffered from mild depression for about 6 years, myself, and when I started going to a therapist and just talking through my problems, I got so much better. A friend of mine, however, has hallucinations, panic attacks and chest pains due to the emotional turmoil that she's been through in the past few years - she's attempted suicide twice, and it was only when her boyfriend walked into her apartment to find her unconscious (she had taken a bottle of pills - he called 911 immediately) that she finally allowed herself to admit that she had a problem and get treatment. She has since been on medication and has been doing loads better.

It all depends on the case, I think. But people should look into alternatives to drugs first, or at least do a combination of drugs and something else (like therapy, reducing sugar consumption etc.) otherwise, this problem will likely never be properly fixed - just covered up with drugs.

I partly agree, I guess.

I have terrible ADHD. I can't sit still for long enough to even watch TV, and thats something I enjoy doing. I find it impossible to revise or listen in class, even when the topic really interests me. I'm not a naughty little kid.. I'm 17 years old and should know how to be mature and behave myself now. I'm hardly bouncing off the walls like I was when I was younger but I still have bad problems with concentration and hyperactivity. Because I don't wanna let it all out by going mental, I end up getting really.. twitchy with all this stored hyperactivity.

I was on Ritalin for two years, and I do think it helped a lot. The idea was that Ritalin, being an amphetamine, sped up the rate at which my brain processed things until it matched the rate I took things in. This done, it was a lot easier for me to concentrate as I could actually process what I heard. I do think it did me good.

On the other hand, about diet - I avoid E numbers, colours and preservatives at all costs. No good done though. Especially when I was younger, I had allergies to milk and wheat so had a very restricted diet. No chocolate and no sweets unless they were sugar free, my parents made sure of it. I lived off organic foods made by my family or specially made by the school cooks. It still didn't do me the world of good though, and I'm still classified as ADD.

My experience with anti-depressants is that they do more harm than good, at least for me. I ended up feeling worse than I did before..

I don't think there's any problem in being an over-prescribed nation other than economic issues. Maybe a healthier diet should be encouraged and fitness promoted rather than pills issued, and of course antibiotics shouldn't be handed out frivolously, but lots of people are helped by the medication on offer.

I think the tendency for people to think that an external cure is the answer - taking a pill, a supplement, a drink, an injection, whatever method of taking something for it - is a dangerous one, just in general. It takes away the individual's integration and responsibility for their own body. Rather than take steps to change one's behavior through diet, exercise, meditation, self-reflection and the like, it creates the mindset that one will first look for an external cure.

I think there's also something you'll notice if you watch some commercials for medications... a prevailing, "You shouldn't have to suffer..." theme. Got a little headache, some cramps, a bit of a backache, sniffles, itchy eyes, whatever - no matter how small and minor the annoyance, you shouldn't have to deal with it. You're entitled to pay a small sum and feel perfectly comfortable. It's a strange notion... Being a mortal biological creature is about a lot of suffering and pain, and the idea that one simply should be able to take something for whatever problem and get instant relief is... odd, to say the least.

Don't get me wrong, medical science is great, and a long life expectancy and greater quality of life are fantastic for humanity in general, but I think if people trusted their own healing abilities and were less, well, wusses about stuff all the time, we'd be better off. I think turning one's eye inward and saying, "Maybe I can fix this myself," for one's own body might transfer to other attitudes.

I think treating depression via medication is often overdone... I remember going to the doctor several years back and she asked me how I'd been eating. I'd not had much of an appetite lately as my life was kinda stressful and I was down about some personal stuff, and I told her so... and she wrote me out a prescription for antidepressants and handed it to me. I was confused... just because I was feeling bad as a natural reaction to some crazy stuff happening in my life didn't mean I needed medication - I was just reacting naturally. Negative emotions out of the blue, feeling depressed when you don't really have a reason to is one thing, but when you've got reasons... it's not necessarily the answer. I think a lot of people who may go on antidepressants would do better with some therapy and/or meditation and self-reflection instead of (or at least before) medication. Identifying what's actually making you feel the way you do can help a lot, especially if something can be done to change the situation. I imagine there's a lot of people who were simply feeling directionless and unfulfilled who have ended up on antidepressants... and may never discover what was really wrong as a result.

Unfortunately, in a very busy society, it appears that it's much easier and more appealing to the vast majority of people to just pop a pill or whatever than to actually dig deeper, do some research, look at themselves, and take real action to fix problems.