Antidepressants and Advertising — David Hunter

Antidepressants have helped enrich the lives of millions of people. When they were first discovered in the 1950s, they ushered in a revolutionary new method for treating depression. People who had never even realized they were depressed marveled at the power of the pills that brought happiness back into their lives. Today, antidepressants can be found advertised in magazines, on television, and on the Internet, offering people a chance at full, normal, happy lives that they might otherwise never have. Those same advertisements, however, have opened antidepressants and the companies that produce them to a barrage of criticism and skepticism. Are antidepressants truly as effective as the advertisements claim? Should pharmaceutical companies even be allowed to advertise them? This book looks at these questions and others as it examines the volatile issue of marketing antidepressants.