But there is now yet another shift in how treatment is given out to patients. For the last forty years, there has been a greater dependency on chemical fixes brought about by large pharmaceutical companies promoting drug use as the solution for both common mental health issues and for more severe psychopathy.

 

The popular notion of doctor-and-couch treatments is less common or has been streamlined to the point of patients being more dependent on the drugs than counseling from a practicing psychiatrist.

 

Dr Radiah Salim, head of a social help group for mental illness, Club Heal said: “Certainly these medications help. But medicine is not enough. The psychological approach is important to help the patient realize and come to terms with their illness.”

 

The number of people on psychiatric drugs have ballooned over the decades and psychiatric drugs are being prescribed for any imaginable condition, from children wetting their beds or having social problems with their peers, to smoking, anger management, fear management and even helping our elders cope with old age.

 

Across all ages, there has never been a time when millions of people across the globe are dependent on drugs to function daily. The majority of people taking prescribed psychiatric drugs have no knowledge on the chemicals in the drugs, what it does to their bodies and why their doctors prescribe them these drugs.

 

In a podcast interview with NPR, Dr. Richard Friedman, director for Psychopharmacology Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College mentioned, “I would say one of the biggest changes in the field is the way that we train young psychiatrists these days, and the emphasis is, you know, and we can argue about whether it's desirable or not, is more along the lines of understanding how the brain works, neuroscience, neurobiology and the use of medication to treat various mental disorders.”

 

He went on to suggest that market forces drive much of this transition in which Psychiatrists are trained to look for medication as treatment. This form of treatment results in patients being dependent on the drugs and would not feel the need to attend sessions with a psychiatrist or even social workers. So what are these market forces that could shift the way psychiatry is practiced and who controls it?

 

Mental health prescription is a business worth roughly $76 billion a year worldwide. With an average annual growth of 5% for the last five years and the pharmaceutical industry growing at a steady pace, the top companies earn a combine profit of $10billion a year.

 

This incline in sales and revenue is the product of more patients being diagnosed with some from of mental health issue such as ADHD in children.

 

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD is a prime example of how the world of psychological treatment has changed and is leaning towards drugs for treatment.

 

In the United States alone, the number of children diagnosed with ADHD has increased by 800% in the last 40 years. Accounting for large profits for the big pharmaceutical companies for a disorder that was practically non-existent five decades ago.

 

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is a manual published by the American Psychiatric Association that lists mental disorders that is used by health professional globally. The manual is highly influential in how mental health practitioners diagnose patients and how the disorders are treated.

 

In the last update of the DSM made in 2013, disorders such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder was added. This disorder is meant to diagnose children who are defiant and are more prone to saying ‘No’. Children diagnosed with such a disorder are then prescribed drugs that are manufactured and researched by large pharmaceutical companies.

 

There is a conflict of interest when the panel that publishes the DSM is made up of people who have ties to the pharmaceutical companies and agencies that have a role in the distribution and marketing of the drugs. These large companies therefore have a huge influence on what is diagnosed and specifically what treatment should be handed out to the patients.

 

It is no coincidence then that there is a shift in the mental health industry to treat people with disorder, no matter how minor it is, with the prescription of drugs.

 

Abilify, a drug used to treat depression in adults was ranked as the seventh most used pharmaceutical drug in 2012. It accounts for $7 billion in sales for that year and is twice the amount that was seen in 2008.

 

Like the previously mentioned ADHD, the push for drug treatment in the mental health sector results in large sales for the large pharmaceutical companies that both research and market the drugs.

 

The UK is home to the world’s fifth and sixth largest pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) and AstraZeneca. With combined revenue of over $60 billion, both companies have a large market share of the global sales of drugs that include psychiatric drugs used for mental health treatment.

 

In 2012, GSK pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the United States and was ordered to pay $4 billion in fines for distributing and marketing of an anti-depressant, paroxetine for uses that was unapproved by the government.

 

GSK was found to have compensated doctors who prescribed their products to their patients and had prescription-related sales targets for their marketing department. This practice is not uncommon for large pharmaceutical companies that are dependent on the sales of their drugs to make a profit.

 

To influence government policies on drug control, these companies spent a total of $1.3 billion in the US lobbying politicians between 1994 and 2005. Such practices by these companies show how they are driven by a profit margin rather than the development of drugs to help combat disorders or illnesses.

 

The use of psychiatric drugs such as anti-depressants are more common they ever. It would not be hard to find someone we know that is on the pill. But what are the consequences and long-term side effects of such a practice when the companies that make them are driven by sales.

 

With complex names and different chemicals involve in the process, it is little surprise that we almost naturally assume that the prescribed drugs that so many people depend on to function daily are good especially given to us by doctors that we seek help from.

 

The need to educate the mental health community of the dangers of such a practice is of upmost importance. There is no concrete research on the long-term effects of the drugs that are being consumed by patients and the quick diagnoses of children with what might seem natural disobedience.

 

There has never been a time in history where so many people have been medically diagnosed with disorders that in the last few decades did not even exist.