Antidepressants play a crucial role in treating depression. But according to a new study published in JAMA, almost half of the antidepressant prescriptions written every year are being used to treat conditions other than depression. What gives?
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For the study, the researchers looked at 10 years worth of electronic medical records—a total of 100,000 prescriptions written by 160 doctors for 20,000 people—and found that antidepressant drugs are also being doled out for problems like anxiety, insomnia, pain, bulimia, and ADD.
While this study focused on prescriptions made in Quebec, the researchers point out that antidepressant use has increased in the U.S. over the last few decades, too. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s risen by a whopping 400 percent between 1988 and 2008, the last year data is available.
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So are antidepressants, which help balance the chemicals serotonin and dopamine in your brain, some sort of cure-all drug?
“In my practice and experience, we have found that antidepressants help with a lot of conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, bulimia, and even anxiety,” says Niket Sonpal, M.D., assistant clinical professor at Touro College of Medicine in New York City.
And the widespread use of antidepressants for a variety of issues makes sense in some ways, says Sonpal. “[The mind-body connection is] so much stronger than we estimate and frankly even understand,” he says. “There is interplay of our brain, mood, and disposition with the rest of our body.” Serotonin and dopamine are also found in your gut, for example.
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Still, while some antidepressants are FDA-approved for generalized anxiety disorder, the JAMA study authors point out that there’s no hard science proving that antidepressants work to treat other conditions. Right now, everything else is anecdotal evidence. Here's hoping this study will inspire more research to be done.
Macaela MacKenzie is a journalist who writes about women and power. She covers women’s equality through the lenses of sports, wellness, and the gender gap across industries and is the author of MONEY, POWER, RESPECT: How Women in Sports Are Shaping the Future of Feminism. Mac was most recently a Senior Editor at Glamour where she directed all health and wellness coverage. Her work has appeared in Elle, Glamour, SELF, Bustle, Marie Claire, Allure, Women's Health, and Forbes among other publications.
