Suicide In The Age of Prozac

Mad In America
Robert Whitaker Aug 6, 2016

In June, the Centers for Disease Control reported that the suicide rate in the United States had increased 30% from 1999 to 2016, with more Americans killing themselves “than ever before.” The CDC has been sounding this alarm for several years now, stirring headlines—each time it issues its annual report—of a “public health crisis.”

Here are just a few of the headlines that have appeared:

• “The Neglected Suicide Epidemic”—The New Yorker
• “The Unseen Epidemic”—Baltimore Sun
• “How Suicide Quietly Morphed into a Public Health Crisis”—New York Times
• “America’s Suicide Epidemic is a National Security Crisis”—Foreign Policy

Although the media reports may tell of social factors that can contribute to suicide, such as unemployment, the language in the articles often tell of a medical crisis. “Mental health experts say mental health screening would help people get into treatment before their depression becomes severe,” Voice of America News wrote, in an article on the CDC report. “Other recommendations include reducing the social stigma associated with mental illness and making treatment more widely available.”

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which has been promoting suicide awareness programs since the late 1980s, similarly tells of how “ninety percent of people who die by suicide have a mental disorder at the time of their deaths.” The most common disorder associated with suicide, the Foundation states, is “depression, an illness that goes undiagnosed and untreated far too often.” It advises reporters to “convey that suicidal thoughts and behaviors can be reduced with the proper mental health support and treatment.”

This rise in suicide certainly deserves societal attention. But given that it has occurred during a time when an ever greater number of people are getting mental health treatment, there are obvious questions to investigate, with the thought that perhaps our societal approach to “suicide prevention” needs to change.
Specifically:

• Is suicide in the United States really at an “epidemic” level? Or is there a bit of “disease mongering” present in such claims?
• What do we know about societal risk factors that could account for changes in the suicide rate during the past forty years?
• Are there guild and commercial interests present in “suicide prevention” campaigns?
• Is there evidence that suicide prevention campaigns work? Does more access to mental health treatment lead to a reduction in suicide?
• Do antidepressants reduce the risk of suicide?

In short, we need a scientific fact-check on suicide in the Prozac era. The hope is that doing so might help our society respond to this suicide crisis in a more “evidence based” way.


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Thank You Mr Whitaker and MIA.