The anxiety epidemic: Are we overmedicating for normal angst?
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The ads seem to be everywhere, on TV, in magazines, doctors’ offices, the Internet: Are you feeling tense? Having difficulty sleeping? Scared of criticism?
If so, they suggest, the answer could be a pill — an antidepressant, to be exact.
The drugs that revolutionized the treatment of depression a decade ago now are increasingly used to treat anxiety disorders - mental illnesses that can cause paralyzing worry or intense fear of social situations. Caused by a deficiency in brain chemistry, the disorders can, indeed, be remedied by potent mood-altering medications such as Paxil and Effexor.
Drug companies commonly seek new uses for their drugs; it’s a way of expanding their market and getting a greater return on the money spent doing research. But now it appears they could be capturing a new segment of patients - those with less-serious disorders, such as occasional anxiety.
Since the federal government approved the drugs for generalized anxiety disorder and social phobia, prescriptions for the medications have soared. Doctors and other health experts, meanwhile, report a marked increase in the number of patients claiming anxiety disorders and seeking relief.
Just about everyone has experienced situational anxieties — when personal or professional stress keeps us keyed up and disturbs our sleep — and it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly when life’s mundane worries escalate into a full-blown psychiatric disorder. There are few conditions where there’s a black and white cutoff.
Consequently, some mental health experts say, people with normal angst may get powerful medications they don’t need, sometimes suffering from side effects such as agitation, insomnia, loss of libido and, when they try to quit the drugs, withdrawal.
At a time when managed-care companies arc cutting expenses, this marketing of the drugs also ratchets up consumer demand for costly name brands when generics, or even counseling, may do the job just as well.
