This morning on the Today show, NBC's Tom Costello filed a report about Americans' dependency on pills. Apparently we're taking more prescription meds than ever before — 16 million of us are on painkillers; 5 million on sleep aids; 18 million on anti-depressants.
Today, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius decided not to allow stores to sell Plan B over the counter to kids under 17, because she wasn't convinced the FDA had conclusively proved teens could safely take it without talking to a doctor. We decided to compare it to a few other medications children…
Amanda Seyfried recently told a magazine that she has panic attacks and gets therapy. She's one of the few to admit that being a Hollywood actress is pretty hard on the psyche — and to be open about treatment. And while we wouldn't wish mental health issues on any individual, there's an upside for society at large.
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A French man is suing drug company GlaxoSmithKline because he claims the Parkinson's drug Requip turned him into a "compulsive gay sex addict."
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Doctors apparently claim Lindsay Lohan isn't really an addict — she was just driven crazy by Adderall. And the thing is, it could actually be true.
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Are American kids overdiagnosed, overmedicated, overburdened with acronyms and diagnoses? In We've Got Issues, Judith Warner has a surprising answer.
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An American Psychiatric Association report says depressed pregnant women should consider therapy before drugs, because of risk to the fetus, but "the risk of the mother's untreated depression to the unborn child also should be taken into account." [WSJ]
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If you know Lisa Carver's writing, you know she's all about owning her experience. The only one she's ashamed of? As she tells Salon, her unglamorous dependence on prescription drugs. As a pill-popper, her account leaves me with mixed feelings.
