Physicians are trained to massively diagnose depression in almost every person, and put them on psychiatric drugs

"These tests have a very low criterion for determining anxiety and depression. Millions of people filled him up and got medication, but did they know that these questionnaires were developed by Pfizer? "

Healthcare workers will be the first to say that depression is a serious mental illness that can not be taken lightly - yet it seems that they themselves are guilty of this, relying solely on a simple questionnaire created by a pharmaceutical company to get diagnosed . The doctors used a psychiatric questionnaire PHQ-9 for twenty years. It contains only nine questions, and it has been developed by large corporations to produce drugs like Pfizer, according to a DailyMail report.

This company supplies doctors with prescription drugs for depression and anxiety, including medicines Venlafaxine and Sertraline. A patient questionnaire is asked to evaluate her experiences of depression symptoms such as poor appetite, low energy levels, sleep disorders and poor concentration, depending on how often they feel - either "a few days", "almost every day", or the like . Responses are scored, and the total amount is checked according to the depression ranging from depression to severe depression.

Many critics have found that the questionnaire reduces standards for getting depression. They also criticized how doctors do not spend more time in conducting appropriate psychiatric interviews, saying that this could lead to a diagnosis of clinical depression in a patient who simply goes through a stressful period in her life. "General practitioners are very busy and often do not have time to conduct a full interview," said Dr. James Davies, co-founder of the "Psychiatric Council," in a DailyMail report. "These patterns have a very low criterion for anxiety and depression. Millions of people filled him up and got medication, but did they know that these questionnaires were developed by Pfizer? "

While this discovery is disturbing, other doctors oppose reliance on the PHQ-9 questionnaire. "They are used less and less by general practitioners, and where they are still used, high scores do not lead to drug prescribing," said Professor Simon Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. It seems that depression is particularly sensitive to excessive diagnosis, with several studies suggesting that most patients with a diagnosis of depression do not fulfill the official diagnostic criterion - and it is therefore dangerous to prescribe psychiatric medication.

A study published in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychomatics suggests that. A sample of 5,639 participants was diagnosed with depression by doctors in a non-hospital setting. Researcher, Ramin Mojtabai, who conducted face-to-face interviews with participants to re-evaluate them for a major depressive disorder (MDD) based on criteria set in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).

In order to qualify for the MDD, the participants had to have a serious depression period of at least two weeks within twelve months. A great depressive episode is characterized by a loss of interest in everyday activities, as well as other symptoms such as anxiety, emptiness, concentration problems, and appetite changes. The research showed that even half of the participants - only 38.4% - have a MDD in revaluation.

These results suggest that for the remaining 61.6 percent, the initial diagnosis of depression was wrong, although most of them said they were using antidepressants. The research concludes that there is too much diagnosis and over-medicamentization for depression in the United States, and more stringent diagnostic and treatment procedures are needed to ensure that all patients receive the appropriate mental health support.

• 27 Jul, 2018
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