**For Immediate Release**
 >From Women and Health Protection

Widespread use of SSRI antidepressants drives soaring health care costs in 
Canada

In a new report commissioned by the working group, Women and Health 
Protection (funded through the Women's Health Contribution Program, Health 
Canada), researcher Janet Currie documents the vast increase in the use of 
SSRI antidepressants among Canadians. The number of SSRI prescriptions 
dispensed in Canada went from just under 9 million in 1999 to over 15.5 
million by 2003. In her report, entitled The Marketization of Depression: 
Prescribing SSRI antidepressants to women, Currie questions the science 
behind the drugs and their real-world effectiveness. She draws attention to 
the serious harms that these drugs can and do cause, as well as to their 
addictive properties.

Currie also points out that 2/3rds of SSRI users are women. "The clinical 
trial results for SSRIs raise many questions about their effectiveness, and 
yet hundreds of thousands of Canadian women are being exposed to these 
potent brain chemicals, sometimes for many, many years despite their many 
risks and side effects," says Currie.

Currie suggests a number of reasons for the increasingly widespread use of 
these drugs, one of which is an increased acceptance of the view that 
depression is a biologically-based phenomenon. Hand-in-hand with this view 
has come an era of aggressive marketing tactics by pharmaceutical 
companies. "One has to ask - is there a reason why depression rates have 
soared so dramatically in the last 15 to 20 years at exactly the same time 
as SSRIs came onto the market and have been aggressively promoted by drug 
companies?" she says.

Currie's report effectively documents the full gamut of issues relating to 
SSRI use. It looks at the expanding definition of depression and links what 
appears to be an epidemic of depression and mental illness to the marketing 
of drugs designed to treat these conditions. Currie adds that in Canada, 
"depression is the fastest rising
diagnosis made by office-based physicians. Visits for depression have 
almost doubled since 1994 and 66% of office visits for depression in 2004 
were made by women."

Her report further states that 81% of physician visits for depression in 
2004 resulted in a recommendation for an antidepressant -- almost always an 
SSRI or a related drug.
At a time when health care costs are soaring out of control, the report 
indicates that total antidepressant drug costs were estimated to have risen 
347% from 1993 to 2000. Eighty-eight percent of these additional drug costs 
were due to SSRI antidepressants.
Convincing doctors and their patients that depression and other emotional 
disorders are widespread and woefully under-treated, and that this is an 
alarming and costly situation, makes good business sense for the drug 
companies. However, "Their effectiveness in delivering this message, which 
has resulted in huge profit margins for big pharma, is what is truly 
alarming," says Currie.

In addition to Currie's report, Women and Health Protection has produced a 
fact sheet on women's use of SSRI antidepressants as part of its "Facts to 
act on" series. The fact sheet, designed to provide accessible, 
straightforward information, explains why SSRIs are prescribed so often, 
when they are appropriate, what risks and harms are Associated with the 
drugs, and what some of the alternatives to drug treatment are.

To see the complete document, The Marketization of Depression: Prescribing 
SSRI antidepressants to women, as well as the fact sheet SSRI 
Antidepressants: their place in women's lives, visit 
www.whp-apsf.ca/en/index.html
Women and Health Protection is a national working group that conducts 
research and advises Health Canada on the impact of Canada's drug 
regulatory system on women's health. Founded in 1998, it is made up of 
consumer organizations, researchers, health providers, and women's health 
activists.
For interviews contact:
Janet Currie
tel: 250-479-2962
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Anne Rochon Ford, Coordinator
Women and Health Protection
tel: 416-712-9459
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Mona Dupré-Ollinik, BSW, BA
Coordonatrice de liaison/Outreach Coordinator
Canadian Women's Health Network/Réseau canadien pour la santé des femmes
419, avenue Graham, Suite 203
Winnipeg (MB) R3C 0M3

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