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The overdiagnosis of depression

"Depressed? No, you’re suffering from modern life," was the headline of a Daily Express article. The BBC, Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph reported the same story: that an expert has said too many people are being diagnosed with depression when they are merely unhappy. The sources reported that Professor Gordon Parker of the University of New South Wales, Australia, ascribes this to a lack of a reliable diagnostic tool and to marketing of anti-depressants by drug companies. Most of the news sources, reported that the journal in which this opinion piece appeared also published a counter-argument from another expert, Professor Ian Hickle. He argued the opposing view, that depression is not overdiagnosed, and that increased diagnosis has led to benefits such as reduced suicides and increased productivity from those who are treated. These stories are based on two opinion pieces from experts in the field of psychiatry, which argued for and against the suggestion that depression is currently overdiagnosed. Although most newspaper stories do refer to both opinions in their main text, and the BBC and the Telegraph delivered a balanced report on both arguments, all the headlines relate to the opinion that depression is overdiagnosed or inappropriately diagnosed. This may create an unbalanced view of the balanced arguments that were presented in the opinion pieces.

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