According to Dr. John Sommers-Flanagan of the University of Montana, misdiagnosing occurs frequently one of the reasons the number of supposedly depressed people appears so high.
Sommers-Flanagan cautioned, “Depression is so easily confused with sadness and unhappiness.” He attributed the confusion to the broad-scale promotion of depression by the American Psychiatric Association and pharmaceutical companies.
His insight into the hit-or-miss manner in which antidepressants are dispensed cuts to the heart of the problem and shows that the diagnosis of “depression” is neither scientific nor medical in nature. “The prescribing of antidepressants takes an experimental approach,” he said. “It is a trial-and-error procedure.”
Physicians, he noted, tend to have a “favorite” antidepressant, which they almost invariably prescribe first. When their pet drug doesn’t work, they prescribe another, and then another, until they run through the gamut of antidepressants or the patient quits.
According to Dr. Roger Greenberg of the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, no scientific validity exists with regard to which antidepressant should be prescribed. As one researcher put it, “It’s a crapshoot.”
The Selling of Depression continued...
    
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