According to research, “Psychiatric medications are among the most heavily advertised prescriptions in the United States. […] Psychiatric drugs comprised three of the five most advertised classes of medication and were among the first drugs to attain ‘blockbuster’ status. […] Data from 2014–2015 indicate that psychiatric medications comprise 20% of the 10 most advertised drugs and 10% of the 100 top-selling drugs.” Between Prozac opening the floodgates in 1987 and the mental health industry’s biomedical model — which asserts “that mental disorders are brain diseases and emphasizes pharmacological treatment to target presumed biological abnormalities” — becoming widespread and accepted, we began to see prescription rates skyrocket. Now we know that the chemical imbalance theory was largely false, but the damage had already been done.

READ FULL ARTICLE ON NEWSWEEK