The great depression swindle
Posted on May 14, 2008
The test GPs use to diagnose depression is worse than useless, according to new research. Under the latest government guidelines, doctors are paid extra to ask patients two simple questions. Your answers are supposed to show if you are depressed or not.
But, a study has found that 62 per cent of patients diagnosed as depressed weren’t in fact depressed at all.
As a result, doctors and psychiatrists could be seriously over-estimating the number of people who are depressed - and prescribing drugs to thousands who are healthy, says the study’s author, Dr Alex Mitchell, a consultant psychiatrist at Leicester General Hospital.
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