It is common knowledge that women go through several periods of anxiety in their lives. In years gone by several herbs and foods were used in handling the situation.
In modern times anxiety has become more frequent due to the life style that women have adopted over the years including working away from home. These changes have increase the general stress levels of women.
In addition, modern gadgets have made doing house chores less manual and more automated reducing the opportunities to work off the stress.
The new stresses seem to be more difficult for women to handle than prior ones. In many cases doctors have routinely prescribed antidepressants regardless of the cause of the anxiety.
Now a new study by several doctor based on a small study sample in Baltimore is challenging the wisdom of prescribing these anti depressants
This clinical study available in the journal of clinical psychiatry suggests that many people on antidepressants are not actually depressed but have some symptoms along with other unrelated issues.
In the study almost 70% of members who stated they had been on anti depressants did not have the symptoms associate with major depressive disorder (MDD); and 38% never met criteria for MDD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, social phobia, or generalized anxiety disorder in their lifetime.
The study found that many had recent or current physical problems e.g., loss of bladder control, hypertension, and back pain in addition to the mental issues they were supposed to be manifesting,
This led the researchers to conclude that antidepressants were being prescribed for non mental issues.
They concluded that antidepressant use was being routinely abused. The main problem with antidepressants use is the various side effects, and the fact that they can become addictive.
What should women and their doctors do? Maybe the answer is to go back to grandma’s medicine. It worked just fine in the past. This is food for thought.
