Canadians Are Highest Consumers of Anti-Depressants in the World

According to a top Canadian psychiatrist, the country is increasing getting more dependent on anti-depressants.

Canadians are depending more on doctors and pills to create a better life for themselves. That is what Dr Joel Paris claims. Mr Paris, professor at the McGill University (Montreal), explained why Canadians take more anti-depressants than the Germans, the French or the Italians. Mr Paris is also the former head of the department of psychiatry at the university.

Mr Paris further explained that Canadians were not happy all the time. Often, there are valid reasons behind their unhappiness, he said. Dr Paris blamed it on the idea that everyone should possess "fantastic relationships," "tremendous jobs" and "high self-esteem". He gave an interesting name: "cosmetic psychopharmacology."

Ottawa Citizen reports that Canadians, at present, happen to be the highest consumers of anti-depressants in the entire world. The last time such statistical reports were obtained was in 2011. In that year, Canadians were placed at the number 3 in the list of 23 highest-consuming countries of anti-depressants. The survey was conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

According to figures provided by IMS Brogan to Postmedia News, in the year 2012, retail drugstores in Canada prescribed anti-depressants 42.6 million times. The number was 32.2 million four years before in 2008. The antidepressants that are mostly sold in Canada are Venlafaxine (Effexor), Citalopram (Celexa) and Trazodone.

Even though Mr Paris, among others, is not against the use of such anti-depressants in case of severe life-threatening depression, it is the frequent use of such drugs even in mild cases that worry them the most. Mr Paris explained that those drugs would not work if the person continued having a normally functional life.