Doctors putting more and more on antipsychotics

If you mention anxiety during a doctor’s visit these days the chances are getting pretty good that you’ll be walking out of his office with a prescription for a heavy duty antipsychotic drug.

And you trust your doctor. He’s only doing what’s best for you, right?

But the reality is there’s really no evidence that antipsychotics are even effective for anxiety disorders. Despite this, a new study has found that the use of antipsychotics for such disorders has risen dramatically over the past decade or so.

Researchers looked at records covering 12 years of visits to doctors’ offices. In those 12 years, the likelihood of a person with an anxiety disorder getting a prescription for a (perhaps ineffective and certainly risky) antipsychotic drug doubled from 10.6 percent to 21.3 percent.

More evidence of the mainstream’s preference for shoving you out the door with a slip of paper in your hand rather than working to get at the root of a problem. Get ‘em on a prescription and get them out the door. And Big Pharma laughs all the way to the bank.

The researchers are urging physicians to limit the use of antipsychotic drugs to cases in which there is a clearly outlined indication for their use. But it’s really a sad day when we have to point that out to doctors isn’t it?

I mean, with the major risks associated with these drugs (the researchers point out the metabolic, endocrine, and cerebrovascular problems that have been linked with them), you’d think doctors would be naturally inclined to use caution.

(Not to mention there’s that “do no harm” thing that they all signed on for.)

But instead it’s just the opposite. Prescriptions for these drugs are being handed out like lollipops. And what’s worse it’s to people who are vulnerable to being victimized. People who are scared, who aren’t feeling like themselves, who are looking to a trusted figure who knows what to do, and who aren’t likely to question their doctors when they put them on these drugs.

The situation is especially frustrating when you consider how many avenues can be explored before jumping on the Big Pharma drug wagon. Several supplements have been shown to be effective in treating anxiety disorders. Yoga has been shown to reduce symptoms, as well. And Dr. Wright’s work with amino acids has done wonders for many of his patients.

Yet the mainstream is addicted to taking the easy way out. They prefer Big Pharma’s bottled “solutions” to all our problems, and would never give those alternatives the time of day. So, as usual, it’s up to us to forge our own path to health.

P.S. You really don’t have to rely on Big Pharma to get your life back. A drug-free approach to panic and anxiety is easier than you think. Click here to learn more from our affiliate at the Health Sciences Institute.

Sources:
“Mental Health: More patients with anxiety disorders are being prescribed antipsychotic medications by office-based psychiatrists,” Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (ahrq.gov)