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A USA TODAY analysis of Medicaid data for the 60 most used psychiatric drugs showed a growing number of people sought mental health treatment and medication during the pandemic as it pushed people into isolation and dismantled support systems.
The analysis also revealed a lingering effect of the pandemic: Mental health-related prescriptions rose further in 2022, up 12% from 2019, outpacing the less than 1% growth in overall prescriptions. That includes prescriptions for generic Zoloft, the most common antidepressant medication, which rose 17% over the same period.
More than half of these drugs saw an increase in prescriptions since 2019, and the steepest increase was among ADHD drugs: Concerta and generic Adderall.
Even before the pandemic, the use of mental health drugs was on the rise due to more affordable medication options and broadening acceptance of mental health treatment. That increase accelerated as the pandemic deepened the country’s mental health crisis following widespread loss and adversity.
If this country spent as much time, money and effort correcting conditions that create despair as they do medicating or otherwise distracting us from the conditions of despair, we’d be the healthiest, happiest, most productive and prosperous nation fur centuries, with profit fur ourselves and global neighbors.