The antidepressants con
Sir: Congratulations to Angela Patmore for exposing the many troubling aspects of the escalating use of antidepressants (‘Overdosed: Our dangerous dependency on antidepressants’, 24 March). The drug companies have conned doctors into prescribing antidepressants, patients into taking them, and taxpayers into paying for them with fake information. Such is the present epidemic of depression that one in ten of us is now taking them. NICE is drafting new guidelines for depression, and it is to be hoped it will expose this con, and that clinical groups in the UK will instead facilitate access to talking therapies for those millions of depressed people.
John Kapp
Hove, East Sussex
Drugs problems
Sir: Isabel Hardman eloquently highlights the poor-quality care available for sufferers of depression and related conditions (‘My drug trials’, 24 March). Although a great deal is known about such disorders, there just is not the support in numbers on the ground. A close relative with bipolar had a manic high exacerbated by a GP’s incorrectly over-prescribing of antidepressants.
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