I continue to be dismayed, angry, concerned -- choose any adjective in that family -- about the huge influence of pharmaceutical companies on mental health practice. Between the drug companies and the insurance companies -- and they travel hand in hand -- the whole field of mental health treatment has altered in ways that do not favor patients at all. If you too get exercised about this issue, I recommend following these bogs: Furious Seasons and Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry -- they both track this with passion and lots of documentation. As I read their posts and observe myself what is happening in this field, I start to feel helpless or at least that I am very far out of the mainstream. Most of the people I know outside of my field and my practice firmly believe that depression is due to a "chemical imbalance" that requires medication, perhaps for life. If they try therapy, it is usually for fairly short terms and then they say it doesn't help. It really shouldn't surprise me -- billions of dollars have been spent to make them think that way.
Mental health and psychotherapy has become medicalized to far greater degree than I ever believed would happen.
I think I will go find something cheerier to contemplate today -- like the melting snow.