My brother had had psychiatric treatment and periodically resorted to antidepressant drugs before he killed himself. The current Surgeon General's report does not actually present a new picture. Since at least the mid-1950s, American psychiatry and public health officials have argued that emotional problems are treatable medical illnesses. Repeated campaigns over the years since then have endeavored to convince Americans that this is the case. And these campaigns have succeeded.
Educated opinion accepts that serious emotional problems require treatment.
At the same time, many new emotional disorders have been uncovered over the years. The DSM's first edition, which appeared in 1952, identified 60 categories of disorders. By the time DSM-IV was published more than forty years later, the volume had grown to include 410 conditions. Not only have more emotional disorders been identified, but many more Americans are being treated for them. Antidepressants account for the most drug sales.