Word: use
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Gist: Antidepressant use in the U.S. doubled from 1996 to 2005, according to a new report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. During that decade - the last period in which data were available - the percentage of Americans using antidepressants surged from less than 6% to more than 10%, or more than 27 million people. The study, which surveyed nearly 50,000 people above the age of six, reveals that antidepressants - the most commonly prescribed class of medicine in the U.S. - are being used to treat not just depression and anxiety but disorders ranging from back pain...
Highlight Reel: 1. On possible explanations for the pharmacological boom: "Several factors may have contributed to the increased use of antidepressant medications. Perhaps most important, major depression may have become more common ... [several antidepressants] were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat depressive and anxiety disorders ... [and] improving public attitudes toward seeking mental health in general, increasing rates of treatment in individuals with major depression, and growing public acceptance of a biological cause of depression may also have contributed to increasing antidepressant use." (Read "Why Antidepressants Don't Live Up to the Hype...
...comparatively low rate of antidepressant use among African Americans: "This is consistent with a broad recent trend toward increasing disparities between African Americans and non-Hispanic whites in mental-health-service use. More specifically, African Americans may be less predisposed than Hispanics or nonwhite Hispanics to use antidepressants. In a sample of primary-care patients with depression, African Americans ... reported a stronger preference for counseling over medication...
...rising demand for clean electricity. A reactor currently under construction in Tennessee is the first of at least a dozen nuclear plants planned in the U.S. over the next decade or so. Italy has just reversed a 22 year-old freeze on building new nuclear plants; Rome aims to use nuclear power to help reduce foreign-energy imports, and cut costs by 30% in the coming years. Belgium and Sweden are considering revising laws to extend the life of existing reactors, and to open the door to newer nuclear technology. Britain plans at least four new nuclear reactors, while Japan...
...that working women in South Korea couldn't use the help. Though South Korea is Asia's fourth largest economy, only about half of its women have full-time jobs; in June, nearly 10 million women were employed nationwide, according to the National Statistics Office, compared to almost 14 million men. In Seoul, many women work infamously long hours, with employers offering few systems to help working mothers keep a manageable balance between their jobs and families. "Because of the very high price of child-rearing in Korea, it may prove more economical to stay behind helping children...