I was watching The View this morning -- I happen to think that some of the best discussion on television happens every day on this show. Anyway, there I was happily watching and then came the commercial -- you can see it here. All of the examples shown looked like good candidates for some work in therapy. But is that what the commercial is for? Of course not, silly. If you explore all of the links at the site, you will find that they do give a nod to psychotherapy, but the implication of the commercial is certainly that it is a change of medication that is needed. Because this commercial comes courtesy of Wyeth. And Wyeth is the manufacturer of Effexor.
I would so like to see some solid thinking and research about what is means that we have become so willing to believe that solutions are best found in medications. There is something in the intersection of the interests of pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies and whatever this is that drives us to prefer thinking in terms of disease instead of responsibility or meaning that makes me very uneasy.