France - champion of antidepressants

[stan]

and withdrawal does not exist in France, people suffer in silence

http://www.france24.com/en/20110802-...ntidepressants

[Barbara]

Stan,

This is a very thought-provoking article about the current depression level in France. I was surprised to hear in this particular study of depression that France had the highest percentage worldwide.

[Cosette123]

Shame to french doctors who prescribe antidepressants for everything.

[Sheila]

It’s a reporting bias – French people are less likely to participate in such a study, and, when they do, they are more open than others are about feeling depressed –

“We cannot conclude from this study that the French are more depressed than people from any other country,” says mental health researcher, Xavier Briffault, of France’s national research institute, CNRS. “The results of research like this are incredibly sensitive to the methods used to obtain them.”

Briffault, who worked on a 2008 study into the methodology of mental health research, argues that asking the same question of someone in France, and then India, for example, will not provoke the same response. “In developed countries people are very accustomed to hearing and talking openly about depression,” he explained in an interview with FRANCE 24. “In low-income countries that is not the case.” The translation and cultural adaptation of questions so that they can be understood across the board in many countries, Briffault says, is near impossible.

And while the WHO study included a lengthy screening programme and face-to-face interviews, it was up to those selected to decide whether they would take part or not. The average response rate was 71.7%, but in France it reached just 45.9%, making the French sample unrepresentative in terms of size.”


What’s really curious – and some of us discussed this on SA once – is that France is consuming more antidepressants than any other country. Stan, can you remember the good idea Alto had about why this was?

[Sheila]

Then, on the other hand, we have "The French Paradox" --

"The French Paradox is the observation that French people suffer a relatively low incidence of coronary heart disease, despite having a diet relatively rich in saturated fats...."

This is interesting --

"The authors of a review of dietary studies concluded that there was insufficient evidence to establish a causal link between consumption of saturated fats and coronary heart disease risk...."

Another Big Phama trick?

Source --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Paradox

[Sheila]

Let them eat brie --




...See, now, this is all coming together. I can't eat brie because I am recovering from damage from an antidepressant (gives me terrible sinus headache; needless to say, I didn't use to have this problem at all)....