Last week, CBC News ran a story about the growing scarcity of psychiatric drugs despite the similarly growing awareness of mental health problems in our society.
CBC health reporter Kelly Crowe interviewed Dr. Zul Merali of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Centre. He said that of those who take anti-depressant medication, only about a third respond well to the medication. Two-thirds of those who take them see little or no response to the medication.
Dr. Thomas Insel, Director at the National Institutes of Mental Health, mentioned in an interview that drug companies have created a series of compounds that are off-patent, reducing the profit margin they once had in this area. He said that many drug companies over the last couple of years have indicated they will shift away from producing psychiatric medication.
According to Kelly Crowe, scientists researching mental illness have better technology at their fingertips for finding solutions, but they face increasing difficulty attracting funding for their research. Drug companies seem to be focusing their attention, and money, over to researching cancer and other physical diseases.
Mandi Luis-Buckner, who was diagnosed with depression 10 years ago, said in the video that she didn’t find real success in managing her depression until she went off her medication.
Watch the news segment below: