Marital Difficulties? Take a Pill.
In an article relaying findings that antidepressants are the most prescribed drug in the United States, comes this offensive tidbit:
Dr. Ronald Dworkin tells the story of a woman who didn’t like the way her husband was handling the family finances. She wanted to start keeping the books herself but didn’t want to insult her husband.The doctor suggested she try an antidepressant to make herself feel better.
Hold on just a minute. Instead of referring the woman and her spouse to marriage counseling, or counseling in general, or telling her to go ahead and talk to her husband about the issue, the doctor allegedly told her to just take a pill and ignore the problem. It sounds as though we haven’t come very far from 1957, when this time capsule was buried containing “The contents of a “typical” woman’s handbag, including 14 bobby pins, lipstick and a bottle of tranquilizers.“
The original anecdote is what really bothered me, though. I told the husband, “Can you imagine, as a man, going to the doctor and complaining about me, and being told to just take a pill to get over it?” He chuckled and acknowledged that he believed that would never, ever happen. Then he said, “I guess that’s not really funny.” No, not funny at all to realize that women would be medicated for marital disputes, and men would not.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for antidepressants for treating depression, and for antidepressants that help with crippling anxiety. I’m decidedly not for doctors prescribing them in lieu of dealing with actual problems.
According to the piece, adult use of antidepressants almost tripled between the periods 1988-1994 and 1999-2000. This may in part be due to the development of newer antidepressants with fewer side effects, but what Dr. Dworkin suggests may also play a role – “Doctors are now medicating unhappiness,” said Dworkin. “Too many people take drugs when they really need to be making changes in their lives.”
Another pet peeve: Why, given that the CDC is a federal agency and its reports are generally freely available to the public online, does the CNN article not include a link to the study report, or at least a news release on the topic? Granted, I haven’t yet been able to identify said study, given the limited amount of detail provided. However, I assume a major news organization could ask the CDC where it is, which is what I’ve done, via email. Will update if I receive a response.
hmm…for this old lady the times do have an uncomfortably retro feel. one reason i blogged yesterday about the upcoming assault on birmingham clinic by anti-choice crazies and how all of us can use reminders of our recent past. laura kaplan’s, “the story of Jane, legendary underground feminist abortion service” about the group in 1960s chicago is a good start.
I can imagine, however, that my wife and I might sometimes find our marital communications eased if we each had a bottle of tranquilizers.
Naomi,
The Story of Jane is a very good recommendation – I have it on my bookshelf right now.
Why did the woman mention this to her doctor, though? Presumably one can infer that she _expected_ to receive medication for this problem. Perhaps the anecdote was first told because the doctor felt uncomfortable about the situation – reading the text box in isolation it’s quite impossible to tell.
Over here in the UK GPs have only a few minutes for an average consultation. If a patient comes in requesting (or even demanding) medication and simply gets told to pull themselves together, they tend to get disgruntled. (Which is not to say that counselling is not also drastically over-prescribed.)
Ian,
I found it difficult to tell why she brought it up as well. However it’s not uncommon for my GP or women’s health nurse (for the ob/gyn-type things) to ask me about my house, my husband, school, work, etc. So it’s not entirely clear why she brought it up, or if she expected to be medicated, but “This thing another person is doing is bothering me” is a fairly poor rationale for prescribing a drug.