How Biological Beliefs Influence Medication Use |
There is an epidemic of antidepressant use across the Western world. In England, the number of prescriptions for antidepressants has more than tripled in two decades, and as more people are taking them, more are remaining on them long-term. In the United States, almost 50 percent of antidepressant users have taken the drugs for more than five years.
For decades now, the public has been told that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and that antidepressants can help rectify this. In 2022, my team and I published a systematic, umbrella review showing there is no compelling evidence that depression is caused by a deficiency of serotonin, specifically. Leading psychiatrists continue to present depression as a condition that is........