A two year study done by Medco Health Solutions Inc. (and reported in a British tabloid recently) indicates that more than one in four American women took at least one drug for conditions like anxiety and depression last year, according to an analysis of prescription data. The report tracked 2.5 million Americans and found the use of drugs for psychiatric and behavioral disorders in all adults rose 22 % from 2001. In addition, the medications are most often prescribed to women aged 45 and older, though their use among men and in younger adults climbed sharply.
So if I were to share a cab with 4 women... there is a good chance at least one of them is using a mind-altering drug?
Yep! I have to ask myself: "should I be packing heat?" Now there are a limited number of cabs here in Lancaster (and fewer women who would ride with me!) but it's pretty plain to see that we are in some real trouble here. In total, more than 20 per cent of American adults were found to be on at least one drug for mental health disorders. They include Catherine Zeta-Jones, who was treated for a form of bipolar disorder earlier this year due to the stress of coping with her husband Michael Douglas's fight with cancer. Model Brooke Shields admitted suffering postpartum depression (stress induced) after the birth of her baby in 2003, while Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps was diagnosed with ADHD (stress to the central nervous system) when he was nine years old.
If these powerful medicines are really necessary, we need to be asking ourselves some serious questions. Questions like: "Are we going crazy?" or "Are our minds and bodies finally exhausting themselves and not producing the chemistry necessary to function normally (on their own)?" Please, don't get me wrong here. I am not an anti-drug zealot. Rather, I know there is a time and a place for the use of life saving measures or crisis care that may demand the short-term use of some very strong medicine. Over use of the "big guns" has never been shown to work! All you have to do is look at the history of antibiotics and their long-term effect in the immune system. A little is OK. A lot can be devastating. Case in point - MRSA.
It gets worse. In adults 20 to 44, use of antipsychotic drugs and treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) more than tripled, (ADHD prescriptions to adult women grew 2.5 times from 2001) while use of anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax, Valium and Ativan rose 30 % from a decade ago. The company said women are twice as likely as men to use anxiety treatments as 11 % of women 45 to 65 are on an anxiety medication. Dr David Muzina, a psychiatrist for Medco's Neuroscience Therapeutic Resource Center, offered this: 'What is not as clear is if more people - especially women - are actually developing psychological disorders that require treatment. 'Or (it might be) if they are more willing to seek out help and clinicians are better at diagnosing these conditions than they once were.
WHAT? /// Insert sound of screeching tires here////
That's like Toyota saying; "We are not sure why our customers are running their cars head-on into hard things like phone poles, bridges and diners at high rates of speed. We're not clear on the type of problem these people are having with their accelerator foot - so what we'll do is speed up the production of our cars to meet the new demand." Here's the point I want to leave you with. Drugs are designed to either speed up a body function or slow it down. That's it! For those with ADD (slow brain function) a form of 'speed' may be used. For anxiety (over arousal of the brain) a nerve system depressant may be recommended. These drugs closely resemble chemicals your brain was designed to produce on its own! These normal, natural chemicals produced by the brain are directly affected by physical, financial, environmental, and interpersonal stressors. You won't read about this on the front page of an American newspaper! It wouldn't support advertisers.
Douglas Meints, DC -
Graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1977. Served for 7 years as a Naval Flight Officer in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. Currently serving as a Lancaster Pa Chiropractor and the Director at Thrive Lancaster.
Thrive Lancaster - http://www.thrivelancaster.com/
2106 Spring Valley Road
Lancaster, Pa 17601
(717) 517-8960
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