A new study shows a dramatic increase in the number of people being treated for depression in the United States over the last decade. The study also shows a shift in treatment to a reliance on drug therapy as compared to traditional psychotherapy. The increased numbers being treated is most likely not from an increase in depression, but from a number of factors including a reduction in the stigma attached to mental health problems, the rise of managed-care insurance, and marketing campaigns by drug manufacturers.
See Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post Service, International Herald Tribune, January 9, 2002