Is a new generation of antidepressants on the way?

The mental health professions are now being forced to address the debate over marijuana legalization.

It’s time to get beyond simplistic notions about “chemical imbalances” and finally reckon with how deeply rooted depression is in the uncertainties and false values of our 21st-century consumer culture.

Life today is, in many ways, easier than it used to be. Therefore, shouldn’t we be less anxious than we once were?

In the age of Big Pharma, meds have flattened all before them in their virtual conquest of the mental health field. Over the years, antidepressants have come to be sold as virtual panaceas for just about any emotional trouble to which humans are prone. According to many observers, however, these drugs are wildly overprescribed, often for conditions that wouldn’t be captured even in DSM’s ever more capacious net.

Over the last 150 years, we’ve seen waves of mass infatuations with psychotropic drugs—antidepressants being the latest. While all these drugs are different, their story arc seems to follow a predictable course.

The chemical effect of psychoactive meds is only part of their impact. In fact, people often develop complex relationships with the pills they take.

For many therapists, an air of mystery surrounds the role of psychopharmacology in mental health treatment. Here's a step-by-step tour of the complexities of the psychiatric consultation.

Does our growing understanding of the brain and the prospect of further scientific discoveries mean there’s a new generation of magical pills on the horizon?

After wading through the controversies and contradictions in the research literature on SSRIs, a critic of Big Pharma explains why he thinks these drugs may have gotten a bad rap.