According to information from a Market Report by companiesandmarkets.com, Americans use more medications to treat anxiety disorders than any other country. This information is based on a report that shows that it costs $42 million (or what amounts to a third of U.S. expenditures on mental health) to treat Americans for their anxiety.
That is saying something since, in Europe, more than a quarter of the population is thought to suffer from various types of brain-related conditions, but most specifically, depression. Meanwhile, it is thought that there is a speedy growth of 5 percent for such conditions expected in the Asia-Pacific region. Treatment for these conditions vary, but most of the time, it starts with patients being prescribed some sort of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), such as Effexor and Paxil.
The market report was based on 619 pages of research that included historical data and forecast data between 2003-2017. Antidepressants are the most commonly used medications for a lot of these brain disorders like depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, but many of those drugs like Paxil and Effexor cause severe side effects. Research is also showing that Paxil and Effexor may not even work any better than a placebo at curing the disorder.
With Americans being viewed as having the highest stress levels, some are wondering just what triggers this stress. Could it be the economy, the fact that the population is aging — or could it simply be that the drug companies are helping to push diagnoses on the population as a means of selling their drugs? Whatever the reason for anxiety-ridden Americans, one thing is sure: Drug companies are going to be making a clean $5.9 billion by the year 2017 in anti-anxiety medication sales.
