If that figure seems very high, compare it to the mid-1950s when over half of U.S. hospital beds were occupied by persons with mental illness, mostly schizophrenia. In 1955, by accident, a new medication developed to treat tuberculosis was found to also elevate mood in depressed patients. By the end of the 1950s, hundreds of thousands of patients were discharged from U.S. hospitals because of these new drugs. Forty years later, the MAOI drugs and the phenothiazines are rarely prescribed. In the 1960s newer generations of medications were developed for depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety and the psychoses.
Medications treat brain-based disorders.
They are biochemical agents. For the person experiencing a divorce, a pill won't change the hurt of that divorce. Now, if a situation creates a lingering depression, that may need to be treated. These are conditions that have different causes but can be helped by the increase of serotonin at the nerve receptors in the brain. Serotonin is the best known of the 50 or 60 neurotransmitter chemicals in the brain.