The number of prescriptions for anti depressants has hit an all time high. What sorts of long term effects do you think this will have on our society, if any?

I think that the number of prescriptions for antidepressants is already the reaction to a change in modern society.

I'm probably not able to satisfactorily answer what changes might have brought about this "all time high" of prescriptions.

But an explanation might be that since people nowadays, in western consumer orinetated societys like north america and western europe, have in general little concern for basic human needs such as food, shelter, reproduction, etc.. (since all that can be provided easily) they create "artificial" psychological problems.

Other factors to boost the prescriptions of antidepressants might be the aggressive policies by the pharma industry, which for example financially reward doctors for prescribing their products to patients. This again involves a whole new topic of what regulations are set by governments on the sale of medicine in general which probably differs a lot between countries.

Hope this helped

I don't like the idea of lots of people taking anti-depressants without trying other forms of tretament eg counselling, they are not always a quick-fix solution .However, for many people, they make a huge difference.I guess the companies making the medicines themselves must be making a lot of money!

Yes, we're already seeing them....we're fatter, less sexy, blander-er {?} , pharmaceutical cos are richer and mental health facilities charge more.

I think that we are taking more Rxs of all kinds, not just anti-depressants, looking for the quick easy fix w/o the hard work/lessons, long term goals. So I think the wide usage is just a symptom of a bigger problem.