Prescriptions for Psychotropic Drugs in a Noninstitutional Population

Shapiro, Sam; Baron, Seymour H.

doi:10.2307/4591183

Cited by 30 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Women were considerably more likely to have used psychotropics than men-an expected result which confirms earlier studies (2). The relatively well-to-do (those with family incomes of $10,000 and over) had slightly higher prevalence rates than poorer respondents.…”

Section: Group Differences In Use Of Psychotropic Drugssupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Of every three prescriptions for psychotropic drugs, two are refills (1) compared with the normal 50-50 rate for other drugs-the preponderance of refills tending to operate against any sharp decline in consumption. Earlier research centered in the Metropolitan New York area suggests that on the order of three-fourths of the 166 million prescriptions for psychotropic drugs were written by general practitioners and about one in 20 by psychiatrists (2).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Use of Psychotropic Drugs by U.S. Adults

Parry¹

1968

Public Health Reports (1896-1970)

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Section: Group Differences In Use Of Psychotropic Drugssupporting

confidence: 79%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Psychotropic Drugs by U.S. Adults

Parry¹

1968

Public Health Reports (1896-1970)

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“…During the 1950s and 1960s, the popularity of the benzodiazepines stemmed from their effectiveness as remedies for general life stresses and protean conditions of anxiety, with little consideration of whether or not they treated explicit disease states. Studies during the 1950s and 1960s found that only about a third of the minor tranquilizers were prescribed for specific mental disorders, while the rest were given as a response to more diffuse complaints and psychosocial problems (Cooperstock and Lennard 1979; Raynes 1979; Shapiro and Baron 1961). For example, a review of psychoactive medication at the time concluded that “only about 30 percent of use is in identified mental disorders and the remainder covers the rest of medicine” (Blackwell 1973, p. 1638).…”

Section: How Depression Captured the Stress Marketplacementioning

confidence: 99%

How an Age of Anxiety Became an Age of Depression

Horwitz

2010

Milbank Quarterly

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Context: During the 1950s and 1960s, anxiety was the emblematic mental health problem in the United States, and depression was considered to be a rare condition. One of the most puzzling phenomena regarding mental health treatment, research, and policy is why depression has become the central component of the stress tradition since then. Methods: This article reviews statistical trends in diagnosis, treatment, drug prescriptions, and textual readings of diagnostic criteria and secondary literature. Findings: The association of anxiety with diffuse and amorphous conceptions of “stress” and “neuroses” became incompatible with professional norms demanding diagnostic specificity. At the same time, the contrasting nosologies of anxiety and depression in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III (DSM‐III) extended major depressive disorder to encompass far more patients than any particular anxiety disorder. In addition, antidepressant drugs were not associated with the stigma and alleged side effects of the anxiolytic drugs. Conclusion: Various factors combined between the 1970s and the 1990s to transform conditions that had been viewed as “anxiety” into “depression.” New interests in the twenty‐first century, however, might lead to the reemergence of anxiety as the signature mental health problem of American society.

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“…The second study of psychotherapeutic drug use (Shapiro and Baron, 1961; Baron * The research reported here was financed by the Social Security Administration (HEW), Contract #SSA 70-2758. andFisher, 1962) were based upon prescription records for a population enrolled in a prepaid medical care program. But as Mellinger and his associates (1970) have pointed out, studies of this design have been more useful in providing insight into the prescribing habits of physicians than into the dynamics of patient drug use.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%