I need Ambien. The TV told me so.

With the exception of women seeking birth control from psuedo-moralist pharmacists, I think it's safe to say that our country's use of prescription drugs is excessive. According to the annual report in 1994, almost half of Americans are taking at least one prescription. Many of these drugs have helped people with serious ailments live fuller lives, while some prescriptions are completely unnecessary. For instance, one in ten women in our country take some form of antidepressant. Are that many women actually clinically depressed? It doesn't seem likely. Depression is tricky because it is a very gray area. We all (or most of us) have periods in our life during which we feel dissatisfied, empty and hopeless. For some people, these symptoms are a signal of a chemical imbalance in the brain. For others, the symptoms indicate a survivable period of sadness in their lives that will pass with or without the use of antidepressants. Psychotherapy, counseling or lifestyle changes may be all that is needed in such cases, but all too often people think that they can solve their problems by taking a pill. The risks of these drugs is frequently minimized and glossed over. In some cases, antidepressants may even make depression worse and lead to suicide.

I believe the source of our overuse of prescription drugs lies in the fact that we are a nation full of consumers. Prescription drugs are being marketed to us just like cars and tennis shoes. We see it. We want it. We get it. We are, after all, Americans.

It used to be illegal for prescription drugs to be advertised on television, but now television is an active marketing forum for prescription drug ads and a virtual playground for greedy drug companies. The FDA requires that drug ads give out accurate information, and promises to give more scrutiny to drug advertising in the future. Great. I'm all for stricter enforcement towards drug advertising, but wouldn't it have been better to scrutinize these ads before they gave false information to the public instead of pulling them afterwards? Television advertising of prescription drugs is leading people to believe they can diagnose themselves. We have licensed physicians for that. They spend years studying to know what is best for us and our bodies, while we see a 30 second ad on TV and think we have all of the answers.

We have a drug for everything now. If we can't sleep, we can take Ambien. If we are depressed, we can take an SSRI. If we have anxiety, we can take a benzo like Valium. The options are endless and continue beyond the realm of prescription drugs. If we want an herbal remedy for depression we can use Saint John's Wort (which may make birth control pills ineffective) or if we have trouble concentrating we can take Ginko biloba (which should not be taken with aspirin or other anticoagulants). We have a world of drug possibilities at our fingertips, and as many as 106,000 people in the US die each year because of adverse reactions to medications. Drug advertising is not only unethical, it is downright dangerous.