Re:Lung Cancer and the Power of Suggestion
by robbiep on Sunday February 10, 2013 @11:25AM
(#5196798)
Except America is the only industrialised nation that allows direct marketing of antidepressants to its populace.
Other industrialised countries - Australia, the UK, France and Germany, etc have also experienced a rise in patients under treatment for these conditions, in lockstep with the US experience, despite this difference you suggest is responsible
It's like an experimental study that removes a confounding factor!
The author never outright states one way or the other whether depression was just hidden or whether it was made up by hype (or some mixture of both, or .... ). However the implication is that the media hype has made more people being diagnosed with depression.
He's not saying that mental illness isn't valid, or that the people with depression aren't suffering. He's suggesting that the increase could partly be caused by the immense advertising campaigns surrounding anti-depressants; this is in no way de-legitimizing depression, just suggesting a possible cause.