College Students on Antidepressants
Depression has been increasingly diagnosed in the college age population with the American College Health Association reporting 16% of all college students having been diagnosed with depression.1 In another large survey of American college students, over half reported some depressive symptoms since entering college.2 Correspondingly, the percentage of all people treated with antidepressants grew over the past two decades. On college campuses in the United States, the numbers of prescriptions for antidepressants increased between the early 1990s and 2005, with estimates as high as 25-50% of the college students being seen in student health counseling centers being medicated with antidepressants. Evidence suggesting increase risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior among children and adolescents taking antidepressants led to the issuing of a public health advisory and a government mandate for “black box” warnings being placed on these medications in 2007.7 There is now some evidence that the trend of treating adolescents and young adults with antidepressants may be decreasing. Although much has been published on the use of antidepressants and how to identify depression in this age group, there have been few qualitative studies that explore the experience of young people who have been medicated with antidepressants.5,9
