The US isn't synonymous with "modern medicine". It's a weird outlier in just about every respect. Vast amounts of clinical research and practice is happening ou

The US isn't synonymous with "modern medicine". It's a weird outlier in just about every respect. Vast amounts of clinical research and practice is happening outside of that bubble. While it's true that the US has a serious problem with overprescribing, it's also true that many other countries are seriously underprescribing psychiatric medication, due to a combination of cost and stigma. Mental illness represents an immense global disease burden, with depression being the single greatest problem. The disease burden of depression is higher in many lower- and middle-income countries than in the US, mainly due to a lack of treatment. Although there has been a great deal of controversy over antidepressant drugs, we are now highly confident that they are significantly more effective than placebo. Generic antidepressants are dirt cheap, with most costing less than $2 per month at international wholesale prices. We shouldn't lose sight of these facts. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32802-7/fulltext http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-67... http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)61611-6/fulltext http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-67...