--- In [email protected], "Jeff Fischer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > These statistics are hard to pin down. The link below from a NY > Times article about an FDA committee, indicates 11 million such > prescriptions were written for children and teenagers. It says > this is almost 8% of the 2002 total, which would put the total > number of prescriptions at about 140 million. I don't know how > often a prescription has to be refilled but even if you figure once > every three months, that's still 35 million.
I would suspect that "prescriptions written" counts a prescription that specifies, say, three refills as one prescription. Insurance companies may require that drugs (any drugs) be prescribed not longer than a month at a time. In other words, a prescription with three refills would last a person for four months (the first month being a "fill" rather than a RE-fill). Especially when a patient has just started taking an antidepressant, the physician may want to ensure that the patient comes to the office on a regular basis for tests and to assess results and side effects, so the physician may write relatively short-term prescriptions. > I've spoken to 100's of people who are or were on these drugs and > quite a number didn't take them very long due to side effects, so > that plays in to it too. Also, again especially at the beginning, the physician may change drugs several times depending on the patient's response, which means more prescriptions. Finally, a depressed patient may be taking more than one antidepressant at a time. Bottom line, it would be almost impossible to extrapolate from the number of prescriptions written to the number of people taking antidepressants on a regular basis. There are just too many variables. > Mental illness is a serious problem. I want a "cure." The article > below indicates most kids were not cured of depression by these > drugs. I believe it's pretty well established that the most successful way to treat depression is by a combination of drugs and talk therapy. But it isn't clear that all cases of depression-- much less all cases of mental illness generally-- can be "cured," even in principle, such that drugs would no longer be needed. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
