Tag Archives: anti-depressant

Depression as a mass marketing campaign: Drug companies profit as antidepressant prescriptions increase

Dr. Brad Hagen, a clinical psychologist and faculty member at the University of Lethbridge, the reason for the skyrocketing rates of depression are a matter of heated debate. “Depending on how you look at it, depression either started becoming more common or recognized, or it became marketed,” says Hagen. Sales of antidepressant drugs worldwide are in the tens of billions of dollars each year. Dr. Hagen says the number of sales is actually quite “mindboggling.”

Psycho/Pharma invents ‘hypoactive sexual desire disorder’ to sell female ‘Viagra’ (antidepressant)

The disorder is a branch of “female sexual dysfunction,” a widely debated term that involves everything from an inability to reach orgasm to a lack of desire. Described as a “Viagra-like drug for women” by one of the drug trials’ principal investigators, the former antidepressant flibanserin is prompting an outcry from critics who say female sexual dysfunction is a disorder the pharmaceutical industry has conjured as an attempt to capitalize on women’s complex sexuality.

Failed antidepressant being repackaged and marketed as Viagra for women…(no joke)

Flibanserin failed its trials as an anti-depressant, but when its maker, Boehringer, asked test subjects to return the unused portion, patients were reluctant. Boehringer funded a study at the University of North Carolina, which now reports that Flibanserin increases a woman’s sex drive. A lot of the media is touting this as “female Viagra,” but it’s really no such thing.

U.S. Senator says Military’s use of antidepressants on troops merits serious investigation

Because of the FDA’s concerns, drug manufacturers have revised their warning labels to state that young adults — 18-24 years old — may be at an elevated risk of suicidal thought and behavior while using these medications.

Approximately 41 percent of our military forces serving on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq are within this same age range. In addition, 40 percent of Army suicide victims in 2006 and 2007 are believed to have taken some type of anti-depressant medication.