What other industry can get it wrong 88% of the time and still expect payment?

I think they know that the drugs they prescribe aren't a fix for most patients, it just tones down the symptoms and many of them create some terrible side effects.

Yea definitely. I've worked privately for a few doctors and they get kick backs from pharmaceutical companies to prescribe their brand vs generic. A rep would come in and those were the best days because they'd buy huge elaborate lunches. But in most cases people need combination therapy anyway, not meds alone.

@Flenflyys: I think lifestyle changes such as exercise, sunshine and vitamin D, diet and learning to set boundaries and dealing with stress could help many people with depression.

No doubt. Just like diet and exercise can prevent diabetes. But a lot of people would rather pop a pill than do the work.

@Flenflyys: One of my sisters went through a period of ongoing stress and she had a breakdown and was hospitalized for a year, the psychiatrist told her he was going to sign her up for disability and she told him to go to hell, that she wanted to get her nursing license in another state and go to school to do that and then work. She took disability long enough to get through schooling and then started to work again. I think the stress was a major factor, her hair had turned white in her mid 30's a couple years before and it wasn't gradual, all the hair white at once. I told her I thought the stress had burned up all the B-vitamins & pantothetic acid & she needed more and she said her doctor had recommended (a few years after she started working).