Depression has become a medical crisis in the United States. Recent data from the National Institutes of Health indicates that more than 8 percent of all U.S. adults (an estimated twenty-one million people) have suffered at least one major depressive episode, with greater occurrence among females (10.3 percent) than males (6.2 percent). Most tragically, the rate is highest in young adults in the prime of life—ages eighteen to twenty-five (18.6 percent).
Not surprisingly, antidepressant use has skyrocketed in recent years—drugs like Prozac and Zoloft are taken by one in six Americans, more than a quarter of whom are long-term users, defined as taking the drug for a decade or more.
